NAME. In his own language a gypsy calls himself and his race Rom, i.e. 'man,' the man par excellence, for all the rest of mankind he defines under the generic term giijo (English gypsy dialect gajo), 'gentile.' His wife is romni, and all that characterizes him and his ways is summed up in the term rornnipen, while his lan guage is roman. The gypsy of each country accepts the name applied to him by the people, but knows not what it means. These local names are as varied as the countries in which he lives; but if we except the many appellations of gypsy like tribes in the East (the Luri and the Karachi in Persia, Nowars in Syria, Jill, and Sinti in India, etc.), of which but little is known, they may be reduced to three general categories: (1) Those referring to the supposed origin of the tribe; (2) a group of allied names of uncertain etymology; (3) depreciatory appellations, such as 'heathen' and 'outcasts.' Instances of the third class occur in Holland, where the gypsies are known as Heidenen, 'heathens,' and in Egypt, where they are Ilarami, i.e. 'robbers.' To the sec
ond group belong most of the appellations of Eastern Europe and Germany. Early Byzantine writers (ninth to twelfth century) speak of the wandering tribes under the name aroiysavoi, whence the gypsies in Turkey are to-day called Chingiane, in Bulgaria Ciganin, in Rumania Ciganu, in Hungary Czigany, in Bohemia Ciiikun, in Germany Zigcuner (Old German Ziginer, Zi geiner), in Italy Zingari. To their emigration from the East we owe the first group of appella tions; a very general. hut wholly false, belief that they had wandered into Europe from Egypt led the Greeks to call them Ptcbroi, the Albanians Jerk, the Turks Fiirilumi (i.e. 'Pharaohs'), the Hungarians Faraonepe (or Pharaoh's people), Spaniards Gitanos, and the English in olden times Egipcions, whence Gypsies. Similarly in Denmark, Sweden, and Northern Germany they are designated as Tatars, and in France Bohe miens.