gipsy: [16] In the 16th century, it was widely thought that the Romany people originated in Egypt. They were therefore called gipcyans or gipsens, which was simply an alteration of Egyptian. The modern form of the word developed in the 17th century (perhaps influenced by Latin Aegyptius). In American English the spelling gypsy is generally preferred. (Spanish gitano ‘gipsy’, incidentally, has a similar origin.) => egyptian[gipsy etymology, gipsy origin, 英语词源]