gypsy

CEFRC1

/ˈd͡ʒɪp.si/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
An outdated term for a member of the Romani people.
02
noun
Extra detail
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.)

Examples

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

An itinerant person or any person, not necessarily Romani; a tinker, a traveller or a carny.
A member of a Broadway musical chorus line.
A person with a dark complexion.

In context

It was at this town of Badajoz, the capital of Estremadura, that I first fell in with those singular people, the Zincali, Gitanos, or Spanish gypsies.
Like a right gypsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
The rest of the day is spent out of doors "Gypsying", and families greatly enjoy themselves on these occasions.

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Question 1 · Quick check

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

The word in print, with each source given in full.

It was at this town of Badajoz, the capital of Estremadura, that I first fell in with those singular people, the Zincali, Gitanos, or Spanish gypsies.
1843, George Borrow, The Bible in Spain, London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.
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, […]
1992 April 7, win...@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu, “contra-gypsies”, 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 […]
1998 September 9, Jonathan Sivier, “Contra Corners - followed by gypsy”, in rec.folk-dancing (Usenet)
Like a right gypsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
c. 1606–1607 (date written), 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]
The rest of the day is spent out of doors "Gypsying", and families greatly enjoy themselves on these occasions.
1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XX, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 199 footnote

Looking a word up is the easy part. LexUp remembers which words you have met and brings them back at the point you were about to forget them.

See Gypsy. Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.