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 Off-Topic / Debate / 10854
10853  |  10855
Subject: 
Re: New Brickbay promotion
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 14 Jun 2001 05:50:10 GMT
Viewed: 
280 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Matthew Gerber writes:
In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Rich Manzo writes:
In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, William R. Ward writes:
That's spelled "gyp" and it's a racist term (short for Gypsy), which
you should probably refrain from using.

Are you sure about this? I have heard this term many times and always
assumed it was gipped. For example, this is how I usually hear the term: "I
was gipped (gyped) at the used car lot." I guess I see your point but I
think that this was just one term that was acclimated into the American
vocabulary.

He is correct. From Dictionary.com:

gyp also gip (jp) Slang
tr.v. gypped, also gipped gyp·ping, gip·ping gyps, gips

To deprive (another) of something by fraud; cheat or swindle.
n.
1. A fraud or swindle.
2. One who defrauds; a swindler.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Probably short for Gypsy.]

And even if it were not derived from "Gypsy", as long as there is any
possibility that people might be offended, it is probably safer not to use the
term.  "Renege", which is actually derived from the Latin renegare, meaning to
deny, comes to mind here.  A while back a politician was labeled a racist by
some for using the word in a speech.  And while I am uncertain of the actual
derivation of the word "squaw", I have heard that it is offensive, so I do not
use that word in reference to my female American Indian minifigs.

Maggie C.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: New Brickbay promotion
 
(...) I've seen indications that it may be a word derived from the trading port of Alexandria, where Egyptian traders' interactions with Europeans gave rise both to the "gypsy" and "gypping" concepts. This is supposedly because at the time Europeans (...) (23 years ago, 14-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: New Brickbay promotion
 
(...) He is correct. From Dictionary.com: gyp also gip (jp) Slang tr.v. gypped, also gipped gyp·ping, gip·ping gyps, gips To deprive (another) of something by fraud; cheat or swindle. n. 1. A fraud or swindle. 2. One who defrauds; a swindler. (...) (23 years ago, 14-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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