Also spelled "gipsy". The correct Romany is "Rom", and refers to any member of a dark Caucasoid people originating in northern India but living in modern times worldwide, principally in Europe. Most Gypsies speak Romany, a language closely related to the modern Indo-European languages of northern India, as well as the major language of the country in which they live. It is generally agreed by anthropologists that Gypsy groups left India in repeated migrations and that they were in Persia by the 11th century, in southeastern Europe by the beginning of the 14th, and in western Europe by the 15th century. By the second half of the 20th century, Gypsies had spread throughout North and South America and to Australia.

True Gypsies refer to themselves by one generic name, Rom (rhotic "r", to rhyme with "dome", meaning "man" or "husband"), and to all non-Gypsies by another term, gage (pronounced "gahd, an exclusive term with a pejorative connotation meaning "bumpkin", "yokel", or "barbarian").

The migratory nature of the Gypsies, their absence in official census returns, and their popular classification with other nomadic groups makes the estimation of the total number of Gypsies a formidable task. Estimates of the total Gypsy population range from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000. A significant statistical picture cannot be gained from the sporadic reporting by those studying Gypsies in different countries. The majority of Gypsies were still in Europe in the late 20th century, especially in the Slavic-speaking lands of central Europe and the Balkans. Large numbers live in the Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, Yugoslavia and neighbouring countries, Bulgaria, and Romania.

The exotic stereotype of the nomadic Gypsy has often disguised the fact that fewer and fewer may have remained truly migratory, although writers on Gypsies disagree on this point. However, it is clear that nomadism by the Gypsies has been largely insular in character. All nomadic Gypsies migrate at least seasonally along patterned routes that ignore national boundaries. They also follow along a chain, as it were, of kin or tribal links. The Gypsies' own supposed disposition to wander has been forcibly furthered by exile or deportation. Only 80 years after their first appearance in western Europe in the 15th century, they fell under the penalty of banishment in almost all the nations of western Europe. Despite their systematic exile, or transportation abroad, however, Gypsies continued to reappear in one guise or another back in the countries that they had left.

All unsettled tribes who live among settled peoples seem to become convenient scapegoats. So it is with the Gypsies who have regularly been accused by the local populace of many evils as a prelude to later official and legal persecution. Their relations with the authorities in the host country have been marked by consistent contradiction. Official decrees were often aimed at settling or assimilating them, yet local authorities systematically refused them the bare hospitality of a campsite. During World War II the Nazis murdered an estimated 900,000 Gypsies. French laws in modern times forbade them campsites and subjected them to police supervision, yet the Gypsies were taxed and drafted for military service like ordinary citizens. Spain and Wales are two countries often cited as examples where the Gypsies have become settled, if not wholly assimilated. In modern times, the Socialist countries of Eastern Europe attempted programs of enforced settlement to end Gypsy migration.

Traditionally Gypsies have pursued occupations that allowed them to maintain an itinerant life on the perimeters of settled society. The men were livestock traders, animal trainers and exhibitors, tinkers (metalsmiths and utensil repairmen), and musicians; the women told fortunes, sold potions, begged, and worked as entertainers. Before the advent of veterinary medicine, many farmers looked to Gypsy livestock dealers for advice on herd health and husbandry. Damaged pots, pans, and metal utensils were saved for repair by the Gypsy tinker.

Modern Gypsy life reflects the "progress" of the gage world. Travel is by caravans of cars, trucks, and trailers, and livestock trading has given way to the sale of used cars and trailers. Although mass production of stainless steel pots and pans has rendered the tinker obsolete, some urban Gypsies have found employment as car mechanics and auto body repairmen. Some Gypsies are still itinerant, but many others have adopted a settled lifestyle, practicing their trades or working as unskilled wage labourers. Traveling circuses and amusement parks also provide employment for modern Gypsies as animal trainers and handlers, concession operators, and fortune-tellers.

The archetypal Gypsy family consists of a married couple, their unmarried children, and at least one married son, his wife and their children. Upon marriage, a young Gypsy couple typically lives with the husband's parents while the young wife learns the ways of her husband's group. Ideally, by the time an older son is ready to move away with his family, a younger son will have married and joined the household with his new wife. Although the practice declined significantly in the late 20th century, traditional Gypsy marriages were arranged by the elders in the family or band (vitsa), to strengthen political and kinship ties to other families, bands, or occasionally, tribes. A central feature of Gypsy marriages was the payment of a bride-price to the parents of the bride by the parents of the groom.

Gypsies recognise tribal divisions among themselves with some sense of territoriality emphasized by certain cultural and dialectal differences. Some anthropologists have delineated three main tribal groups:

  1. the Kalderash (smiths who came from the Balkans and then from central Europe and are the most numerous)
  2. the Gitanos (French Gitans, mostly from the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and Southern France, usully entertainers)
  3. the Manush (French Manouches, also known as Sinti, mostly in France, Alsace, and Germany, often traveling showmen and circus people).

Each of these main divisions was further divided into two or more subgroups distinguished by occupational specialisation or territorial origin, or both.

There has never been on record any one authority, either congress or "king", accepted by all Gypsies, although "international" congresses of Gypsies have been held in Munich, Moscow, Bucharest, Sofia and Rowne. However, if Gypsy kings are a romantic popular fiction, the existence of political authorities among the Gypsies is an established fact. The use of the word "tribe" by writers on Gypsies has been ambiguous. Those who affected noble titles such as "duke" or "count" in their early historical dealings with local nationals were probably no more than chieftains of bands, who moved in groups of anything from 10 to a few hundred households. These chieftains (voivodes) are elected for life from among outstanding families of the group, and the office is not inheritable. Their power and authority vary according to the size of the band, its traditions, and its relationships with other bands within a tribe.

It was the voivode who acted as treasurer for the whole band, decided the pattern of its migration, and became its spokesman to local municipal authorities. He governed through a council of elders that also consulted with the phuri dai, a senior woman in the band. The phuri dai's influence was strong, particularly in regard to the fate of the women and children, and seemed to rest much on the evident earning power and organisation of the women as a group within the band.

Strongest among the Gypsy institutions of social control was the Romany kris, meaning both the body of customary law and values of justice as well as the ritual and formation of the tribunal of the band. Basic to the Gypsy code were the all-embracing concepts of fidelity, cohesiveness, and reciprocity within the recognised political unit. The ultimate negative sanction of the kris tribunal, which dealt with all disputes and breaches of the Gypsy code, was excommunication from the band. However, a sentence of ostracism might exclude the individual from participation in certain band activities and punish him with menial tasks. In some cases, rehabilitation was granted by the elders and followed by a feast of reconciliation.

Bands are made up of vitsas, which are name groups of extended families with common descent either patrilineal or matrilineal, as many as 200 strong. A large vitsa may have its own chief and council. Vitsa membership can be claimed if offspring result through marrying into the vitsa. Loyalty and economic cooperation are expected at the household rather than the vitsa level. There is no generic term for household in Romany. For cooperation, a man probably relies on a circle of meaningful kinsmen with whom he is physically close and not, at the time, in dispute.

Gypsies have been one of the vehicles through which folk beliefs and practices have been disseminated and, in areas where they are settled (e.g., Romania), have been positive guardians of "national" customs, dances, and the like, which were disappearing among the peasantry in the second half of the 20th century. Although Gypsies have a rich oral tradition, they have contributed little to the world of written literature.

Increasingly in the second half of the 20th century, Gypsies struggled with contradictions in their culture. No longer did they defend themselves so much against persecution from a hostile society but rather against erosion of their lifestyles from urban influences in industrialised societies. Themes of familial and ethnic loyalty typified in Gypsy music helped to preserve the conservatism of Gypsy ways, yet some of the younger and more talented exponents of this music have been drawn away by the material rewards in the outside world. Integrated housing, economic independence, and intermarriage with the gage have undermined Gypsy law.

Sources

  • The Gypsy Lore Society on http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/
  • My cousins Rosemary and Susan, with thanks for their patience with this ignorant gage.
  • as always, www.altavista.com, which knows everything.

In memory of Auntie Lil, who died last week

The etymology of the word gypsy is interesting. Webster 1913 touches upon the fact that it's derived from "Egyptian" but doesn't really explain further. When the first Romany peoples crossed the English channel and arrived in England some 500 years ago, they found themselves in a nation which was just beginning to flex its nautical muscles. English explorers had begun sailing out around the world, and, at a loss to explain where these dark-skinned travellers had come from, decided that they resembled the people of Egypt.

The word Egyptian gradually became corrupted to Gypsy, and as England moved further away from a feudal, rural society towards a capitalist, city-based one, the Romany lifestyle came to be considered a subversive threat. The status of the Romany dropped from that of travelling folk who could provide a useful service and they became labelled as beggars and thieves. For a long time the words gypsy and Egyptian were interchangeable, and in fact in the 18th Century a law was passed in Britain making it illegal to "impersonate an Egyptian".

The ninth track on Suzanne Vega's 1987 album Solitude Standing. (It's got the date 1978 under it in the liner notes so I suppose that's when she wrote it.)

It's my favourite track on the album, and makes me think yes yes, I want him, I know what she means. One of my best friends has (or had, sigh) a jester, a mystery spirit like this, a faint smile on his lips, a feeling he was about to do magic for you. I always think of him when I play it, but the feelings it stirs are a lot older: a childhood awe of benevolent strangers, enticing you with hands like birds, entertaining you as if it was all they had to do in their life. I felt like that myself when I played the flute, a little later -- as if I had joined the circle of enchanters, very slightly.

The melody is by Suzanne Vega too. It's a bit livelier than some of hers: it swings me along, it's upbeat. I usually stop the disc after it's over because I don't want to let it and the thoughts it engenders die away too soon.

As a fair use taster, here's one verse:

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl's
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

Editors: Let me know if this should be cut down further to constitute fair use.

A super-hero published by DC Comics

Cindy Reynolds is the real name of the hero name Gypsy. From an abusive family, Cindy's power to manifest realistic illusions that mimic a person's greatest fear first came activate during a family argument. Cindy projected her power into the minds of her family and fled, fearing her power and the situation at home. Cindy's destination was Detroit.

Living on the street and using her illusion powers to hide, Cindy became known to the people on the street as Gypsy. She encountered the Justice League of America who had recently taken up residence in Detroit and was eventually invited to join the group. The League became Gypsy's family for a while with J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, serving as her father figure and Mari Macabe, Vixen, acting as her mother.

When the League broke up due to the schemes of Darkseid during the Legends mini-series, Cindy returned home to try and start life again as a "normal teen." She later came out of retirement to join Booster Gold and other heroes in a short-lived team called the Conglomerate.

Gypsy is the female robot aboard the Satellite of Love on TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000. She is the only robot aboard who doesn't watch the movie of the week because she is too busy tending to the higher functions of the ship: regulating oxygen mixtures, steering the ship, performing maintenance, and other day to day operations that keep the ship intact and the human test subject aboard (her creator Joel Robinson and later Mike Nelson) alive. In fact, it is an inviolable rule that Gypsy cannot watch the movie (except for when she does in Hercules and the Captive Women when her curiosity got the better of her and she sat in with Joel and the 'bots for the first fifteen minutes of the film). While the modern day Gypsy was constructed from some tubing, a child safety seat, and a flashlight, the original Gypsy featured during the show's year on KTMA television was built from what appears to be pieces of a laundry hamper. The original concept for the series involved her watching the movie as well, although this idea was dropped between the filming of the unaired pilot episode and the series premiere. Her original personality was that of a simple, dopey, cow-like pet (an interview with the cast years later recalled that "We only had one female character on the series and she was a cow-like creature voiced by a man."), but as her character evolved she became the wise, all-knowing, and loving friend to Joel/Mike and the 'bots. Also, for reasons known only to her, she is obsessed with actor Richard Basehart.

Series producer and director Jim Mallon provided Gypsy's voice for seven years and a half years before stepping aside and handing the role to Best Brains staffer Patrick Brantseg. Patrick's take on the character was much like Jim's and unlike the chaos that erupted in MST3K fandom when Mike Nelson replaced Joel Hodgson as the host of the show or when Trace Beaulieu passed the torch of Crow T. Robot to Bill Corbett, there were few complaints regarding the casting switch. This could be because we don't see Gypsy very often; after all, she is busy running the ship's higher functions. She was also responsible for aiding Joel escape to Earth when she believed that Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank were planning to kill her creator. When we do see Gypsy in action it's either because she's taking part in one of Joel's art projects or she's warning Mike about a shipboard malfunction. Gypsy spends most of her free time cleaning up the messes left behind by Mike and the 'bots, and I'm not talking spills and stains. When Mike destroyed the Hubble Space Telescope in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, for example, Gypsy volunteered to fix the disaster he had created. Furthermore, in episode #601, Girls Town, Dr. Forrester launched the Umbilicus, a large tube that connected Deep 13 to Gypsy to act as a transport tube between the Mads and the Satellite of Love. At the end of Season 7 the Umbilicus was cut, freeing Gypsy from her physical link to Deep 13.

After the Satellite of Love crashed back to Earth in the show's series finale, episode #1013 Diabolik, Gypsy formed her own company, Congypsco. She offered an opporunity for Mike and the 'bots to get in on the ground floor, but they declined and her company soon became highly profitable.


References:
http://www.mst3kinfo.com

Gyp"sy (jip"s&ybreve;), n.; pl. Gypsies (-siz). [OE. Gypcyan, F. égyptien Egyptian, gypsy, L. Aegyptius. See Egyptian.] [Also spelled gipsy and gypsey.]

1.

One of a vagabond race, whose tribes, coming originally from India, entered Europe in the 14th or 15th century, and are now scattered over Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Spain, England, etc., living by theft, fortune telling, horsejockeying, tinkering, etc. Cf. Bohemian, Romany.

Like a right gypsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
Shak.

2.

The language used by the gypsies.

3.

A dark-complexioned person. Shak.

4.

A cunning or crafty person [Colloq.] Prior.

 

© Webster 1913


Gyp"sy a.

Pertaining to, or suitable for, gypsies.

Gypsy hat, a woman's or child's broad-brimmed hat, usually of straw or felt. --
Gypsy winch, a small winch, which may be operated by a crank, or by a ratchet and pawl through a lever working up and down.

 

© Webster 1913


Gyp"sy (jip"s&ybreve;), v. i.

To play the gypsy; to picnic in the woods. Mostly, Gyp"sy*ing, vb. n.

 

© Webster 1913


Gyp"sy, or Gip"sy, moth .

A tussock moth (Ocneria dispar) native of the Old World, but accidentally introduced into eastern Massachusetts about 1869, where its caterpillars have done great damage to fruit, shade, and forest trees of many kinds. The male gypsy moth is yellowish brown, the female white, and larger than the male. In both sexes the wings are marked by dark lines and a dark lunule. The caterpillars, when full-grown, have a grayish mottled appearance, with blue tubercles on the anterior and red tubercles on the posterior part of the body, all giving rise to long yellow and black hairs. They usually pupate in July and the moth appears in August. The eggs are laid on tree trunks, rocks, etc., and hatch in the spring.

 

© Webster 1913

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