# Is the term "gypsy" offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092 "2007-02-28T22:39:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/41 "2007-03-02T00:30:15Z")
That explains it…two people seperated by a common language. I have only heard “gyp” the way **GorillaMan** uses it pronounced like “dip.” Which is very different from the way “gypsy” starts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/42 "2007-03-02T01:05:36Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] Rubbish. Who, exactly, considers “Swedish” offensive? [/QUOTE] Ok, yes, you got me. 😛 But I meant a slangy term rather than a strict nationality, which refers only to a dude’s place of residence. Of course, if that dude is now living in America, they may want “Swedish-American” or just “American”. And, some dudes living in other nations on the 2 America continents do disagree with only those from the USA being called “Americans”. So, it’s hard to win. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/43 "2007-03-02T08:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] Rubbish. Who, exactly, considers “Swedish” offensive? [/QUOTE] Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/44 "2007-03-02T09:04:33Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] That explains it…two people seperated by a common language. I have only heard “gyp” the way **GorillaMan** uses it pronounced like “dip.” Which is very different from the way “gypsy” starts. 😃 [/QUOTE] Unless I’m missing something, the pronunciation GorillaMan gave is “jip” as in the first syllable of “gypsy.” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/45 "2007-03-02T09:19:18Z")
[QUOTE=Kal] Think that was the Express. A newspaper whose stories on Gypsies got it taken to the PCC twice after complaints of racism from its own journalists. [/QUOTE] Huh. That was our paper of choice when I was growing up, and I remember it as being OK, but I wouldn’t wipe my arse on it these days. Our parish council (for I am a respected pillar of the community) occasionally gets sent an official leaflet on matters relating to travellers, which generally gets treated with some disdain not because any of us dislikes travellers but because we can’t remember the last time one came through our backwater of a village. Which, of course, doesn’t stop TPTB from lecturing us on what they think we ought to know about the subject. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092/46 "2007-03-02T22:19:16Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Are you sure? Do the people of Britain take offense to being called a Brit by Americans? Do Yanks mine being called Yanks by a Brit? [/QUOTE] I once heard an interviewer be corrected with “British, please” when he referred to “Brits”. As for “Yank”, bear in mind that it was originally intended as a slur. The song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is about a country bumkin who thinks that showing up in London with a feather in his cap make him the bees knees. during the American Revolution, the Redcoats sang the song in order to mock the Colonists as pretentious rubes. Our boys quickly embraced the song as their own and before long, “Yankee” became synonymous with “American” around the world, except in the South, where it more specifically meant New Englander. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-gypsy-offensive/394092.md?page=2)