17.01.2014 The etymology of the word “gypped”

Challa (2013) develops a small etymology of the English word “gypped”. She begins her article by pointing out that most people are not aware of where the word actually comes from. In everyday language, the word is synonymous with “stolen”. That the word refers to “Gypsies” and thereby to Rroma and represents a pejorative foreign name for the ethnic group is not well known: “I encounter a lot of people who tell me that they never knew the word ‘gypped’ had anything to do with gypsies, or that it’s offensive — especially when the word is heard not read,” says University of Texas at Austin professor Ian Hancock, who was born in Britain to Romani parents. “My response to them is, that’s okay. You didn’t know but now you do. So stop using it. It may mean nothing to you, but when we hear it, it still hurts.”