Of Gypsies and Vandals

[aggienaut]

   So I was talking to devilintraining the other day about how the word "gyp" is one of those words that the ASUCD periodically tries to ban. I think there's been a resolution on the topic (admittedly, it must have been a slow period with Lead hardliners in power in ASUCD), but at the very least I definitely remember once some unfortunate unit director unsuspectingly used the word in a sentence and got absolutely mauled by some senators.

   The thing that they didn't realize you see, and pretty much no one does, is that allegedly "gyp" is short for "gypsy," and when used to refer to being cheated, its therefore pejorative to gypsies, allegedly.
   BUT, there are no gypsies around here, and we know of no instance of one ever being offended by the word "gyp." If those using it don't have any idea it is anything other than another word for "cheat," and no one is around to be offended by it, is it still offensive?

   Moreover, "gypsy" itself is an inaccurate (and some even say offensive) term -- its derived from "egyptienne," the incorrect medieval french assumption that the Roma came from Egypt!! Though if you were to assume the word "Roma" was related to Romania you would be incorrect as well -- there is no etymological link (incidentally, Romania IS named after the Roman empire -- as part of the Roman empire the people called themselves "romans" and continued to after it fell, so in a sense the nation of Rome lives on!!)

   The whole discussion got me thinking, what other words do we use in complete obliviousness to the implications they may make about a people? What about Vandalism? Are we implying those with Vandal ancestry are a violent and destructive people? This may seem like a pretty distant allusion, but it was only in 1973 that the Swedish King dropped the Goths and Vandals from his official title -- "King of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals."

   So next time someone refers to vandalism I'm going to claim to be an offended vandal. Personally I'm going to rule gyp "not offensive" based on the fact that it is almost exclusively used by people with no inclination to link it to the Roma people (and in fact, if I see someone call someone out on that, I'm gonna blast em for using the word "gypsy," which unlike "gyp" IS documented to be considered offensive to some it is applied to!!!)

Comments

[spencerfern.livejournal.com]

It is similar to "feminists" who want to spell "women" as "womyn" or some other derivation.

The etymology says that "man" just means person. In Old English wyfman meant female person, and werman meant male person.

The confusion came as English evolved into a language that does not clearly distinguish masculine, female, and neuter nouns. It is actually evidence of the gender neutrality of our language.

Come to think of it, I find werewolf movies very misandristic. Why do all manwolfs have to be male men?

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Interesting. So when I say "hey man..." to a girl, its not incorrect?

In a somewhat related note, I also love it when I call something retarded and someone gets offended. Like most recently I was at a convention and coffee came in mugs with handles which were small and hard to, well, handle. So I pronounced them "retarded." This nearby girl got all offended and asked what I meant. I explained matter-of-factly that it looked like the development of the mug had been stunted, then looked at her like I couldn't fathom what her objection could be. Pwn!

[spencerfern.livejournal.com]

You can say "hey man" to women, but you must at all times maintain that you are from 6th century England. In addition to being able to call women "men," you can also justifiably wear a suit of armor. I call that a win-win.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

And blame all my problems on Vortigern and those damn saxon illegal immigrants!!

[thepeoplesmp.livejournal.com]

also, the (mis)use of the term "caucasian" as a blanket for all white people.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Which reminds me I never did understand that whole "aryan" thing, since as far as I can tell the "aryan race" was indian. And of course Iran changed its name from "Persia" to "Iran" to highlight their "Aryan" roots and get on Hitler's good side. Go team!

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

Good song choice.

As far as "if there's nobody around to be offended, is it still offensive" - is the word "nigger" not offensive if there's no black people around?

[spencerfern.livejournal.com]

They do not seem to think so in japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-19ioGniZ88

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

But the other condition I mentioned, that people don't know its offensive, doesn't hold true in this case -- I don't know of anyone so oblivious as to not realize the implications of the word.