Is "gypsy" a legitimate ethnic categorization

[LaraMN]

or is it sort of a slang reference?

One of those things I should probably know, but nope. I don't.

[supernova]

1. They prefer to be called "Roma"

since they are wanders from Romania, mostly. It also avoids the stereotypical connotations of "Gypsy"

[LaraMN]

2. Ah! Thank you!

My husband referred to being "Gypsy," and I didn't think that was probably the accepted way to describe it.

[supernova]

3. Well, in certain thespian circles

"Gypsy" is still used mostly to describe the traveling lifestyle of a chorus performer.

[LaraMN]

4. Okay- do you also know what the term

"Bohonk" refers to? Bohemian?

[supernova]

5. There you got me

What does that mean? :shrug:

[LostinVA]

6. Yes!

I refer to my neighbor as Mr. Bohunky, because of that. He's from Bosnia and his wife's Croatian, and he's a hunky bohonk, so he's Mr. Bohunky.

[LaraMN]

7. So, it means "Bosnian?"

:hi:

[supernova]

8. There's "Bohunk" in the Urban Dictionary

There seem to be serveral meanings for it, white Easterm European trash (BOhemian + HUNgarian)

a lot of them seem to be derogatory.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bohunk

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. Yes, it is considered derogatory.

My sister lives in a town with many of Czech ancestry. My town is heavily Irish. :)

[supernova]

14. That would explain it

I love looking up words that are new to me, even if they aren't nice words.

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. It's like calling a person of Irish ancestry a mick.

Or a German a kraut.

Other ethnicities have even worse terms.

[LostinVA]

17. I embrace my mick-ness

and my wop-ness.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. I embrace my Mayo-ness.

:)

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. Bohemia is the western part of the Czech Republic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemia

Why do I know this when I don't have a drop of Eastern European blood in me?

:shrug:

You're welcome.

[LaraMN]

10. That makes sense! He's part Czech.

:thumbsup:

[supernova]

11. Yep,

I was familiar with it b/c I studied German and the Austro Hungarian Empire ages ago. :-)

Very famed for they multicolored cut glassware.

[bettyellen]

21. and forbeing the site of an incident cited as one of the short term causes of world war....

whew, where did THAT come from? i feel like the manchurian candidate or something.,,,,

[supernova]

25. Did you know that the carriage

in which Archduke Ferdinand and his wife (forget her name) were assassinated in is in the Carriage house at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna?

It's creepy. You can still see the blood stains. It would be like looking at the limo in which Kennedy was assassinated,

[bettyellen]

28. no, wow! that's facinating.

[Nevernose]

29. And Bonny & Clyde's death car is just outside Las Vegas.

And people say that Americans have no culture!

For the record, though, Bonnie and Clyde's death car has at least been cleaned of the blood stains. That part's just icing on the creepy cake.

[supernova]

31. If it's been cleaned,

what's the point? :shrug: :P

If you're going to show the macbre and the ghoulish, you have to go whole hog.

[Nevernose]

32. Oh, you wanna go whole hog? (please don't read if you want funny)

I sat in it. Turned the wheel. My ex was the security guard at Whiskey Pete's Casino, and roaming for all three casinos on the California border. I went home a little early to get the kids from the babysitter's.

Later that same night, she was across the highway at another hotel, and discovered the body of a murdered seven year old girl -- n African American child named Sherrice Iverson -- who had been drowned in a toilet after being raped, or even perhaps while being raped. The murderer had been high on meth at the time (telling the jury that it was just ephedrine), and while out on bail attended prom. While riding in the limo that his parents rented for him, he hung out of the sunroof and performed a few seig heils.

After his conviction, the asshole got a retrial, and claimed that he raped and murdered a seven year old because he'd been adopted.

Okay, maybe I'm feeling a little morbid tonight...

[Blue_Tires]

33. you can see kennedy's limo at the henry ford museum

up in dearborn...no blood of course, because lbj had it scrubbed

[GoneOffShore]

19. Mostly used to describe dancers in musical theater

[fudge stripe cookays]

23. Actually, it's Romany. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Roma/Romany comes from the Romany for 'man'

which is 'rom' : http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=romany&title=21st&sourceid=Mozilla-search

[Solon]

12. Gypsie comes from Egyptian, Europeans thought that's where the Romani came from...

the Romani themselves have a distinctive language and culture that makes linguists and Geneticists think they come from much further east, on the Indian subcontinent.

In addition, the Romani used to be, and still are, in some places, discriminated against in Europe. In fact, they have their own term for the Holocaust, Porajmos, literally "the devouring", Romani in Germany were stripped of their citizenship, and somewhere around 200,000 to 2,000,000 were sent to extermination camps. As a consequence, the Bohemian Romani language became totally extinct.

Contemporary discrimination is usually based in housing and land purchases, in Britian, where they are usually called Travellers, segregation in schools in Eastern Europe, even in Denmark for a short time, etc.

[Hieronymus]

16. I know Roma is a word for them, but I read that they orginated in India.

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. I read that too.

Will Durant included it in his History of the World series somewhere. I have the whole set...

I believe it may be in the Age of Faith volume. It explains the origins of many of the world's faiths and some of the ethnic groups.

[Kerrytravelers]

20. In my Teaching Toldrance magazine from SPLC, they say it is an ethnic slang.

I stopped using it after I read that as I did not know it was regarded as such.

[bettyellen]

22. now in Ireland they call them Travellers, kerry. That's the PC term since they do live in caravans

the term used to be tinkers. i.e. repairers of home goods, etc.

[Nye Bevan]

26. I think the word "gypsy" may be considered offensive nowadays

There was a prolific author of children's books in the UK called Enid Blyton, who was one of my favorites growing up. Gypsies commonly appeared in many of her books but in the modern editions the word "gypsy" has been replaced by "traveler".

[Lex]

30. Also, using the word "gypped" isn't cool either. I guess it's derived

from "gypsy." I didn't know that until about 5 years ago so I stopped using it--I didn't know or hadn't thought about it.