Well, I've found this week's most clueless comment ever

[conuly]

In response to "Stop using gypsy, it's a slur" round 1,000:

The same people that suddenly decided that a word that has been acceptable for generations is suddenly determined to be a "slur". Try referring to that word as a slur in Ireland, Scotland, Spain, France or Portugal and see what results you get.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to take the opinions of people in an area that's a hotbed of virulent anti-Roma prejudice. Uh-huh.

I have no idea, btw, why people are so freaking attached to this word. If we exclude it from proper names*, the number of times I've ever had to use it and not saying "yeah, don't use this word" can be counted on one hand.

* People give themselves and their children and their pets all sorts of inappropriate names. When you know better, you do better - well, unless you'd rather whine about it.

Comments

[merridia]

It took me aaaaages to convince my mom (who is usually pretty reasonable about these things!) to stop referring to her vehicle as her 'gypsy van' because she just loved the phrase/image it conjured so much and it made her sad not to. There's just something about that word, it's SUCH a weird hill to die on.

I blame Cher, I'm still trying to figure out a decent substitute for the word in Dark Lady that doesn't mess up the flow for karaoke purposes.

[conuly]

And here, if I heard somebody refer to their vehicle as a "gypsy van" I'd think they meant it was an unlicensed taxi. You know, you have some free time so you sit in the nearest supermarket parking lot the day before Thanksgiving and drive people home on the cheap, or you drive close to the bus stop and pick up anybody who's tired of waiting for the bus and drop them off at the ferry.

I don't actually have another term for those, but there's got to be one. Maybe "dollar van"? IDK.

[moon_custafer]

If the idea is that it’s an unlicensed, freelance taxi, could “wildcat van” or “wildcat taxi” work? Like wildcat banks or wildcat strikes?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Yeah, they are 'cabs' without medallions and probably no meter.

So Uber or Lyft before cellphones.

[conuly]

Or licenses in places that don't have medallions.

[musesfool]

Yeah, I and some friends of mine have been known to call those unlicensed taxis the "dollar cabs."

[glinda]

On the cultural differences front, the phrase 'gypsy van' conjours up a completely different image to me, that of a painted Romani caravan. (Which if you've never encountered, are properly called vardo, are often gorgeously painted and were still in active use in the mid-90s at least.) On the rare occassion I've come across that in a US context I presumed it referred to one of those VW campervans that hippies painted up all psycadelic. The more you know.

[ayebydan]

Just drop the line like when white people should drop any line from songs they are singing with the n word in it.

[flamingsword]

"Boho" as short for Bohemian can do a lot of heavy lifting for g****, if the context is correct?