[Ed_City]

From TVShowsonDVD:

Canada doesn't get these bonus DVDs at all, or very very few of them, and are gypped out of getting that material unless they go to extreme lengths to get the releases from stores in the USA.

Gypped? I find this kind of racist language very sad coming from such a top outfit as TVShowsonDVD.com.

[Jay_B!]

ok, I consider myself pretty left (well, left to moderate), but that is way too defensive. "Gypped"/"Jipped" whatever has been used a long time with no racial slurs intended. There is so much worse out there to get offended by, I think 99% of the people who use that word do not link it with gypsies, it's hardly the same as a racist, homophobic, sexist or anti-Semetic slur which everyone associates as such.

[Jay_B!]

Gord, don't worry about it. I don't think 99% of the people who use "gypped" mean it as a slur against gypsies, but more or less another way of saying "ripped off". You cannot consider it a slur in the same way as certain famous slurs against African-Americans, homosexuals, Hispanics or the sort. I mean, some people get offended by just about anything. Don't be sorry because you have nothing to be sorry about.

[Elena S]

Nor do I think any slur is intended. At first I didn't even know what the poster was talking about.

I do want to comment on the story, however. I'm disappointed that tvshowsondvd will no longer talk about bonus disc content, simply because it's too inconvenient to keep up with the different releases. This may be easier on those reporting, but it's a loss for readers who go to the website expecting to see everything about DVD releases mentioned. After all, it IS an information website. What's next? The elimination of summaries for releases? Sorry to rant, but I'm extremely disappointed in the news.

[Ed_City]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_B!

You cannot consider it a slur in the same way as certain famous slurs against African-Americans, homosexuals, Hispanics or the sort.

Or the sort?!

Where to begin with a comment like that.....

Well, um, are you suggesting that some ethnic slurs less offensive than others?

On what ground do you base that premise?

/Just because you called something "gay" in the playground doesn't make it acceptable in 2006.

[Richard Michael Clark]

Gypped means to be cheated or swindled, it's not racist at all! (and since when have gypos been a "race"?) Get over yourself yer mong!
It's political correctness gone mad I tell you!

[Robert Anthony]

I think I'm pretty comfortable in saying you are the ONLY person left in America, gypsies included, who thinks the term "gypped" is a racial slur.

There's quite a good chance the majority of people who use the word have NO idea there was ever a racial connotation to it, and your calling ATTENTION to it is actually sorta counterproductive. Not to mention bizarre.

[AnthonyC]

I've never, ever heard of any racist connotations with the word "gypped." I actually think it's kind of hysterical that someone is so offended over something that 99% of readers will think absolutely nothing of.

[Brian W.]

Yes, obviously there was nothing offensive intended. I'll bet 99% of everyone in this country don't even know the word is derived from "gypsy."

A private message to Gord saying, "You know, some people might be offended by that word," instead of throwing the word "racist" around here would have been more appropriate.

[Mark_TS]

wait....no, its not April 1 yet...

[TonyD]

racist, oh brother, ridiculous.

i said it when i was a kid before i ever heard of a gypsy.

i would have spelled it jipped.

i would agree that maybe it is a poor choice of wording only due to how obscenely sensitive people are these day, but racist.
way over the top of a reaction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark_TS

wait....no, its not April 1 yet...

mark what is that in your sig?

how about i just spell checked my post and for jipped i saw both gipped and gypped.

[Jonathon M]

a bit too much. well, now i know where the phrase come from.

maybe we're all a bunch of randal "porchmonkey 4 life" greaves (clerks II)...

[Mike Frezon]

A simple dictionary look-see:

gyp Also, gip.

verb To deprive (another) of something by fraud; cheat or swindle.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

An informative internet site called "The Word Detective" had this to say on the subject of "gyp" and the issue of words with racist origins losing their stigma:

Quote:

Rule(s) of Thumb

Dear Evan: We are wondering where the phrase "Rule of Thumb" came from. Please help! We have checked the dictionary, thesaurus, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's book "Elements of Style", and the internet -- to no avail. If you can tell us this information we would be grateful. -- Jan Benintendi, via the Internet.

Hereby hangs a tale (possibly even a tale and a half). The phrase "rule of thumb" is notable today, not for its real origin, but for a modern myth of its origin. Supposedly, under English common law in the 17th century, the original "rule of thumb" allowed a man to beat his wife with a switch on the condition that the switch be no thicker than his thumb. Thus, it is said, the phrase is inherently oppressive and offensive and should never be used.

Now, while I believe this story to be untrue, the general question of "hidden" offensiveness in idioms is a legitimate one. Many of our words and phrases are painfully potent reminders of attitudes and practices of the past that we find reprehensible today. On the other hand, some of our idioms have traveled so far from their nefarious origins as to have earned a reprieve. Thus, a phrase such as "indian giver" may rightly still be considered offensive today, while "gyp" has largely lost its overtones of the once-common prejudice against gypsies. There is no simple rule for deciding whether a phrase has lost its sting -- only our reasonable sensitivity and good will tempered by a healthy resistance to the shrieking paranoia so commonly found in discussions of language these days.

In this case, the issue is moot, because the "sexist origin" of this phrase is almost certainly pure invention. "Rule of thumb" probably came from the use of the thumb as a convenient measuring tool, the distance to the first knuckle usually being about one inch. Even "The Bias-Free Word Finder," the bible of the Politically Correct Language Guardians among us, considers the wife-beating theory implausible and notes that it first surfaced in a 1986 letter to the editor in "Ms." magazi