Yeah, they're about equivalent.

Well, on the Mark Watches board where he's reviewing Avatar among other things it's banned as Hate Speech. But it's not a word I have excised from my vocabulary.

So they're not equivalent but they're both things I'm thinking about.

For one thing there's etymological debate about the origin of the word.

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There is a lot of misinformation about the true origin of the word "gypped". It comes from the Greek word "gyp" for vulture, not from the word "gypsy".

Gyp (Jip, Gip, Gypsy, Gippo, Gypper, Gypster)

A person who cheats or swindles people. A trickster. A person who is not quite honest. Gyp is the Greek word for vulture. In the 19th century, the Universities of Cambridge and Durham in England provided servants, who attended one or more undergraduates. Students called the servants “gyps” because the gyps found many ways of obtaining ale and tips from them and preyed upon the students like vultures. Gyps made beds, ran errands, helped their young masters over the college walls late at night, and provided other services. Sometimes they ran away with everything they could lay their hands on.

Jordan Almond, Dictionary of Word Origins: A History of the Words, Expressions, and Clichés We Use, Citadel Press, New York, 1985, page 113.

So, while the term "gypped" comes originally from the Greek word for vulture, the word "gypsy" may in fact be a word that may cause legitimate offense to some. The word "gypsy" was coined in England in the 16th century when they mistook a people of Middle Easter/Indian descent for Egyptians due to the color of their skin. The word "Gypsy" comes from the Egyptian word for "Little Egypt" which the English gave these wondering people, who themselves prefer to be called Romani, due to the fact that they thought it made sense to call a smaller sect of people from what they thought was Egypt, a name which meant Little Egyptians.

Now you can enlighten anybody who thinks the word stems from Gypsy. It does not.

I could enlighten people who have misconceptions about the word "niggardly" but instead I use it solely to point out that sometimes perception trumps etymology.

We're into the second season of Community. Whoever wrote the music for the space simulator episode is a genius.

Heh, yeah, that was a fun one. I'm past the halfway point of season two.

I haven't given up on "crazy" yet either.

Me neither. I'm now hyperaware of its usage, but I'm still fine with it.

Request for recommendations: I have both Parks and Recreation and Community in my viewing queue. Any suggestions on which I should watch first?

I'm doing Parks and Rec after I finish Community. So I would vote Community.

I just finished watching both and love them both equally! So yeah, I'm no help.

On a side note, Hulu has all of season 3 of Parks and Rec. We signed up for the trial of Hulu Plus so we could burn through those and then cancelled. (We wanted to watch them on the big screen on not on a computer monitor). I'm not a fan of Hulu Plus. If I'm going to pay for a service, I don't want commercials.

billytea,

I just finished both seasons of Parks and Rec and I took to it very slowly. "Community" is more my kind of humor than P&R - though P&R is funny.

P&R is closer to "The Office" (so if you like "The Office", you will probably love P&R) in format and sense of humor, but P&R has fewer people there that you HATE. Nearly everyone character on P&R, I have some affection for.

"Community" just gets me because of the layers of references and pop culture folded in. Many more visual gags, and ambition than P&R and so that's what hits my funny bone the most.

Beau laughs at P&R more than Community and truth be told, I think Community is a bit more uneven than P&R - but I still like Community more.

Community is darker in tone overall than P&R - in case that makes a difference.

The etymology of niggardly is concrete. The same cannot be said for gyp, by a long shot.

I still get a little uncomfortable when people intentionally use "niggardly" to be dickish. There are other words in the English language that are synonyms, I don't think it is a problem to use them.