While nearly everyone has an idea of who the Gypsies are, not everyone knows of the Roma. Gypsies and Roma both refer to the same ethnocultural group. However, it is only in the last ten years or so that the latter of the two terms has become politically correct. Heretofore known as gypsies, not even meriting a capital letter, this term has now become derogatory at worst and tolerated at best to many Romani groups. The prejudice associated with the term can be seen in the word “gyp.” According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a “gyp” is a swindle, cheat or fraud.

The word “Gypsy” comes from the first of the Romani nomads in the fifteenth century in Europe. The nomadic groups explained their origins as Little Egypt. This eventually gave them their name, Gypsies, coming from Egyptians. In many dialects of the Romani language, rom is the singular, masculine man and roma the masculine plural men, with romani as the plural, masculine, adjective. The word refers to the people, while the term gaje refers to any persons that are not Romani. Thus, a marked us/them dichotomy is established. This dichotomy is seen linguistically as well as ideologically.

While the majority of Roma speak Romani, there are often very marked differences between the various dialects. In Mexico, for example, the plural Roma in real usage is Rom. However in an effort to consolidate these dialects into the accepted Romani of academia, if such a thing is to exist, I will use Roma when referring to the people as a whole, as is done in much of the literature.