27 September 2012 - The Mad Filkentist (original) (raw)

04:00 pm - Just an observation
The term "gypsy" does not mean "eater of raw meat." It comes from the word "Egyptian," and I suppose people who hate Egyptians might think that's a horrible ethnic insult. The people who have been creating faux "gypsy" music for centuries haven't been doing it as a secret way of insulting anyone; generally it suggests they generally like at least the music of these people with rather mysterious origins, and quite often there's a sense that there's something exotic and romantic about their way of life.

It's true, people have sometimes used "gypsy" as an insult. Along with "French," "Polish," "Greek," "Russian," "African," "Democrat," "Republican," "teenager," and every other word that stands for an identifiable group. We could replace all these words with new ones, but then someone would start using those as insults and we'd have to try again. I'm aware that in some cases people do keep coming up with new words because the old ones have been used so much as insults. There's a limit to how many ethnic terms we can do this with, though, before everyone just gets confused. I suppose dictionary writers could issue a new edition each year with new terms for every group. It would help their sales, if nothing else.

People who speak other languages really don't very often switch to English terms for the sake of insult (unless they're insulting English-speaking people). They find the insults in their own language much more evocative. The words that translate as "gypsy" in other languages are especially varied, since everyone has their own bad guess about the group's origins.

I'll grant "Roma" doesn't break the scansion of any existing songs, and if "gypsy" rhymes with "tipsy," "Roma" rhymes with "coma."
Current Music: The Roma Rover