Gypsy comes from a medieval mistake: Europeans thought the Roma were Egyptians
The English word Gypsy traces back through Middle English to Egipcien, because medieval Europeans assumed the newcomers were wandering Egyptians. Language and genetics say otherwise. The Roma began in northwestern India, around Punjab, Rajasthan and Sindh, and set off westward about 1000 CE, reaching Europe through the Balkans in the 13th or 14th century.
The Romani are an Indo-Aryan people with a tradition of travelling life. Their own name may come from the Sanskrit doma, possibly pointing to the Doma, a Dalit caste linked with music and dance. Their route west ran through the Ghaznavid and then Byzantine empires. The Spanish Gitano and French Gitan share the Egyptian misreading, while another family of names, including the German Zigeuner, may come from a Persian word for a poor person or from a Christian sect called the Athinganoi.
Names remain contested. Many Roma find Gypsy insulting, and the first World Romani Congress, in 1971, voted unanimously to reject all outsider labels. Yet in Britain many Romanichal and Kale proudly call themselves Gypsies, and official documents use the word. The one term close to universal is Rom. Every subgroup recognises a shared origin and a divide between themselves and non-Roma, called Gadjo.
The Romani language belongs to the Indo-Aryan family but absorbed words from Persian, Armenian, Greek and South Slavic, and Balkan varieties carry heavy Turkish influence. Its dialects have more than 2 million speakers, though because it was traditionally oral, many Roma speak their country's main language or a blend. Subgroup names often record old trades: in Romania, Kalderash means kettle-makers and Ursari were bear trainers. Several group names come from kalo, meaning black, which echoes the Sanskrit word for dark.
Counting the Roma is difficult, since many avoid declaring their ethnicity on censuses for fear of discrimination. Estimates put about 10 million in Europe as of 2019, around 6 million in the EU, and Turkey is home to the largest single population. The Americas received Romani migrants mainly from the 19th century, including an estimated 1 million in the United States and 800,000 in Brazil, though Romani slaves had crossed with Columbus in 1498. Spain also sent enslaved Roma to Louisiana between 1762 and 1800, and an Afro-Romani community took root in St. Martin Parish.
Source: Romani people
