That's Interesting

Well, Mr Punch said he wanted me to look up words...

Today's word is "Gypsy," which the Roma people complain is an exonym for them.

And it is.

But it originates as slang for Egyptian.

It spreads as both a term describing anyone of a swarthy complexion and to people who are thieving by nature.

The thief part comes from it being ever so stylish to have Egyptian servants and associating servant with minor thievery from the estate.

Roma are dark skinned compared to most of Europe, so one can see where it jumped to them.

Roma have a reputation for being less than honest with outsiders and generally not respecting property rights of the people they live amongst.

But did that come before or after they became associated with the household staff stealing the silverware?

Remember, it's not slander if it's true.

So far the elimination of the word gypsy from the Basic Set has been justified on the grounds that the Roma don't like to be called that, not that the accusations don't have merit.

I find that telling.

But also, IF it is true.  If it is not, then I'd be offended at being accused as well.

Western Civ DOES have a bad habit of falsely applying bad attributes to outsiders and has done it so often we're in a boy-who-cried-wolf situation when we find someone who actually HAS those bad attributes. 

I think, though, that the way to deal with an exonym is to embrace it, not reject it.  Kill its power to offend.  I'm 1/2 Dago WOP.  My grandfather on Mom's side experienced all that prejudice and bigotry, but here we are, not being offended by it because we decided that it had no power to hurt us.

Sticks and stones; you choose to be a victim of a slur or not.

For a recent example, look how conservatives embraced "deplorable."