'Pikey' is an abbreviation of 'turnpike'and, as such, derives from a reference to itinerant labourers in the 17th and 18th centuries ('turnpike riders', IIRC). It's got connotations of snobbery, but I don't see the racism...
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Wed 7 Oct 2009, 11:28,
archived)
Travellers are a race nowwhich is why you can't say gyppo either
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emvee cruor deo cruoris,
Wed 7 Oct 2009, 11:31,
archived)
funny that.When the "Gyp" in Gypsie comes from "Egyptian", and has nothing to do with the races who currently claim the term.
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Halibut If you think education is expensive, try crack.,
Wed 7 Oct 2009, 11:34,
archived)
Traveller and gypsy are different."Gypsy" is a contraction of "Egyptian", which is where members of this particular nomadic community were mistakenly thought to originate when they arrived in England in the 16th century. (In fact, they're from northern India originally; yep: the English response was "Darkies all look the same to me" even then....)
There's nothing ethnically determinate about a traveller.
(There's nothing ethnically determinate about a traveller.
Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Wed 7 Oct 2009, 11:37,
archived)