October 7, 2020 | Definition of gypsy
Given all the reading I do (and my job), I refer to my (Canadian) English language dictionary A LOT. I know English (it’s my first language), but it is important for me to check the exact meaning of a word (after all, synonyms are synonyms and not the same word for a reason). Plus, there are a bajillion more words I still need to learn, I mean did you know about gypsophila before? Or gypsum board? Or gyratory? Well I didn’t.
Anyways, I was looking up the definition of gypsy, and its etymology, according the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2e, is as follows: “earlier gipcyan, gipsen, from EGYPTIAN, from the supposed origin of gypsies when they appeared in England in the early 16th c.”
So, the English just assumed that these persons came from Egypt? Hm.
