British judge attacked for using old-fashioned slang
We read:
"A judge has been accused of using a 'racial slur' against gipsies when sentencing a conman. Judge Christopher Elwen told the fraudster he had 'gypped' a student out of money on the eBay website. The slang verb 'to gyp' means to defraud or steal. Experts suggested there is 'scholarly consensus' that it is derived from the word gipsy.
Romany gipsies also claimed the word began life as 'gypsied' and is an insult. But the judge insisted there is 'no evidence to connect it to any racial group'.
Travellers Times editor Jake Bowers said: 'Gypped is an offensive word. 'It is derived from gipsy and it is being used in the same context as a person might once have said they "jewed" somebody if they did an underhand business transaction. 'Basically what Judge Elwen has done is ascribed thievery to an entire ethnic group.
A spokesman for the Judicial Communications Office defended the judge's choice of words, saying: 'Gyp is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as an act of cheating, nothing more.
Source
It's a word I have not heard used for a long time but it was once common. I always understood it to refer to the experiences of visitors to Egypt in the first half of the 20th century, who were often cheated in various ways.
8 comments:
These people need to get a medal. There efforts at attaining victim status are impressive.
The whole world knows that gypsy is synonmous with thief, and for very good reason. But, as is evidenced by the judges critics, thieves don't like being called thieves. FCUK 'EM!
Next we will have to stop using the word “Vandal”, since the Vandal’s were a East German tribe, and so refers to a people. Their greatest achievement was the “sacking of Rome”. So we have to stop saying Vandalize!
Mobius
Maybe this is why lawyers rarely speak in plain English, the moment they do they get in trouble.
JJR,
FWIW, the word "Gypsy" itself derives from "Egyptian."
"The whole world knows that gypsy is synonmous with thief, and for very good reason."
Correct anon,
However,
The people whose rectums should be invaded by flesh devouring maggots are the 3rd level educated, Liberal, bleeding-hearts who make the lame excuses for the slimy, theiving gypos!
It's easy to make excuses for the knackers if you don't live within 20-miles of a halting site.
And yet no one gets miffed over "Gerry-rigged" or "Gerrymander", right?
Bobby said...
"Maybe this is why lawyers rarely speak in plain English, the moment they do they get in trouble."
Have you ever wondered why the words lawyer and liar are so similar?
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