Romani people
The Romani, colloquially known as the Roma, are an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin who traditionally lived a nomadic, itinerant lifestyle. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Romani originated in the Indian subcontinent, in particular the region of present-day Rajasthan. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred c. 1000 AD. Their original name is from the Sanskrit word डोम, ḍoma and means a member of the Dom caste of travelling musicians and dancers. The Roma population moved west into the Ghaznavid Empire and later into the Byzantine Empire. The Roma are thought to have arrived in Europe around the 13th to 14th century. Although they are widely dispersed, their most concentrated populations are located in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Spain, and Turkey.
In the English language, Romani people have long been known by the exonym Gypsies or Gipsies (corrupted from Egyptian), which most Roma consider a racial slur.
Quotes
[edit]- A quiet, pilfering, unprotected race.
- John Clare, "The Gipsy Camp" (1841), quoted in Carol Rumens, "Poems of the week: The Gipsy Camp", The Guardian (10 February 2009)
- We gypsies need only air and love.
- Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), translated by Isabel F. Hapgood (1888), Bk. 7, Ch. 8
- His captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s lust.- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, I, 1
- See: Claude Rawson, Swift and Others (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Ch. 7: Cooling to a Gypsy’s Lust
