And yet I'm reasonably sure that people don't associate it with servants at Cambridge university.

Well, I didn't associate it with gypsies either.

Well, I didn't associate it with gypsies either.

You individually didn't know that. I'm comfortable making the assumption that there are more people currently in existence who know that "gyp" is likely derived from "Gypsy" than there are people who know that it came from servants at Cambridge university.

If the derivation of the word does not originally come from a slur on gypsies then it's a different issue. Its an inadvertent association, sort of like the homonym issue you get with "niggardly."

The first time I ever heard "gypped" was in the context of "this is a word you shouldn't use, because it's insulting to Gypsies." I'd never noticed "gypped" being used in any way before that, but after that, I started noticing it in old books. I had no idea it was still in modern usage at all until I started hearing it more often in the past few years.

There was an episode of House where his patient was a teenage Roma boy, and House made a point of using "gypped" in his presence a few times just to get him annoyed.

The Greek association seems odd to me. Does Greek even have that J sound?

Does Greek even have that J sound?

How do you pronounce "gyros"?

How do you pronounce "gyros"?

yee-ros.

There are a lot of places in Chicagoland that serve burgers, hot dogs, Italian Beef, and gyros under the same roof, and most if not all Chicagoans of all ethnicities pronouce it "yee-ros," not "jai-ros."

A longish but interesting article about police bunco investigations targeting Roma groups. Interesting because the article tries to parse the issue of racial profiling as well as a longstanding presumption (in the culture at large, but especially here with the police) that Roma are culturally predisposed to swindling as a way of life.

A Georgia Consumer Affairs warning specifically citing Irish Travelers for a tradition of fraud.

The article is from 2006 and the Georgia warning is from 2007 so these are still fairly recent.

I am not making a case here against the Rom or Travelers, but presenting information about the association of gypsy cultures and swindling, which is still very ingrained and not solely as ethnic prejudice but as matters addressed by police investigators and consumer affairs offices. (Of course the police would never indulge in racial profiling.)

Hec, what point are you trying to make about the appropriateness or not of the word "gypped"?