The History of the Gypsies (Roma)

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 01:21:22 +0000

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✏️Description: Known across the world by many names such as: "Gypsies", "Roma", "Romani", "Sinti", etc... ; the Gypsies played a crucial role in the development of the Balkans & the history of many of the countries that inhabit the region today such as: Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and many others outside of the region. Yet, when talking about history, very rarely are the Roma mentioned or talked about. In this video we go over the origin of the Roma in India, their migration across the Silk Road and into the Balkans, their life in the Balkans & under the Ottoman Empire, the 20th century, their life under communism & finally modern times.

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On the word "Gypsy":
"Gypsy" comes from the word "Egyptian", because prior to the late 18th century, Europeans & Gypsies themselves believed they came from Egypt. The word "Roma" means "man/person" in the Gypsy language, and prior to basically the 1950s the Gypsies didn't even think of themselves as a coherent group, but different clans and families.

If we're talking about the more colloquial word for Gypsies in Eastern Europe, "cigan, cigány, țigan", it comes from the Greek "antsigan" which means untouchable. However, outside of Greece, most didn't know the meaning of the word (surprise surprise medieval peasants were monolingual). Later in the 16th century due to Gypsies becoming the majority of the slave population in the Ottoman empire & the Balkans, the versions of "antsigan" became synonymous with slave. However, the words "Slav/Sclav" also meant slave as Ottomans had laws of considering non-Muslims their property.

In modern times the meaning of the word was lost, and many associated the negative qualities to the word because of association and negative context. The push for not using the word and using "Roma" is relatively new and came about in the 90s. However, within the Gypsy community in the Balkans there has been a counter movement against the use of the word "Roma". From a standpoint of several reasons.

1. Being the retaking of a word & meaning
2. In traditional Gypsy circles, it is not acceptable for foreigners aka "gadje" to speak Gypsy as it was kept a secret language from them due to oppression.

If you ask a Gypsy in the Balkans how they prefer to be called, the majority of the time they will say "Gypsy". I haven't really seen anyone but westerners and western raised Gypsies make a fuss over this word. Hell, I have a Gypsy aunt inlaw who is adamant on the term "Gypsy" over "Roma". If someone does ask me from the community to not refer that way, I will. But overall in both Serbia, Romania, and Hungary the term amongst the Gypsy population is not seen as a slur.

Many Romanians & Romanian gypsies actually are pushing against the use of the word "Roma" due to being too similar to "Romanian". From the Gypsy perspective the case being they don't want their cultural identity to be erased and taken as Romanians, while Romanians don't want to be mistaken for Gypsies (which is a whole other story in itself)

📖Sources:
⚫Fonseca Isabel - Bury Me Standing
⚫Hancock Ian - We Are The Romani People

🎶Outro Song🎶: https://youtu.be/VDDX2m_vd-g
🎶Explained Intro Song🎶: https://youtu.be/vafpeSvU0DA

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