A Gypsy Dictionary

Most of the words in this dictionary are derived from the Indian Sanskrit. Romany is no longer a spoken language. The enforcement of by-laws over some 60 years has limited the number of Gypsies still travelling, and the arrival of the New Age travellers in the 1960s meant that it was difficult for many to distinguish the newcomer from the traditional Gypsies who were once the only people to jal the drom (travel the road). However, not only do travelling folk still use many phrases and intersperse conversations with words from a large vocabulary, but many of the words have crept into everyday slang. This is particularly noticeable in London’s east end. The writer of television’s Only Fools and Horses was aware of this, and the dialogue of his principal character, Del Boy, is sprinkled with Romany words. When someone refers to prison as “stir,” they are using a shortened version of the Romany stiripen. Berk, a derisory description of a person, is the Romany word for a woman’s breast, while “cosh,” meaning an offensive weapon, comes from the gypsy kosh, meaning stick. As Romany is not a written language, being passed down the generations by a once largely illiterate people, the spelling of words often varies. To learn Romany albeit in part, is to be able to use an ancient and secret language.