gypsy

• gipsy, gipsey, gypsey, gypsie (archaic)
• gyptian

See Gypsy. The generic usage that refers to any itinerant person.

Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.

From Egyptian, because they were originally thought to have come from Egypt.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɪp.si/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪpsi

gypsy (plural gypsies)

1. (sometimes offensive) Alternative form of Gypsy: a member of the Romani people.
2. (colloquial) An itinerant person or any person, not necessarily Romani; a tinker, a traveller or a carny.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

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

3. (sometimes offensive) A move in contra dancing in which two dancers walk in a circle around each other while maintaining eye contact (but not touching as in a swing). (Compare whole gyp, half gyp, and gypsy meltdown, in which this step precedes a swing.)
4. (theater) A member of a Broadway musical chorus line.
5. (dated) A person with a dark complexion.
6. (dated) A sly, roguish woman.
7. (dated, colloquial) A fortune teller

See notes at Gypsy.

• (contra dancing): gyre, gyp, gip

gypsy (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of Gypsy: of or belonging to the Romani people.
2. (offensive) Of or having the qualities of an itinerant person or group with qualities traditionally ascribed to Romani people; making a living from dishonest practices or theft etc.

See the notes about Gypsy.

gypsy (third-person singular simple present gypsies, present participle gypsying, simple past and past participle gypsied)

1. (intransitive) To roam around the country like a gypsy.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XX, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 199 footnote:

     The rest of the day is spent out of doors "Gypsying", and families greatly enjoy themselves on these occasions.

2. To perform the gypsy step in contra dancing.
   • 1992 April 7, win...@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu, “contra-gypsies”, in rec.folk-dancing (Usenet):

     Look at the person you're gypsying with, and convey the message that you notice them as a person and that you're glad that they're there, […]

   • 1998 September 9, Jonathan Sivier, “Contra Corners - followed by gypsy”, in rec.folk-dancing (Usenet):

     The only one I know of is The Tease by Tom Hinds which starts with the actives gypsying and then swinging their neighbors and ends with contra […]

• Gypsy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “gypsy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.