Timur, Putin, (and others), when I was at school, the word "gyppo" was used frequently in casual speech, but never in written form. So I don't know whether I'm spelling it correctly. Used as a verb, to "gyppo" an activity meant failing to attend the activity without permission. To "gyppo" an article meant to make that article work in an incorrect way, or to steal the article.
Now, several decades later, I no longer hear the term used by schoolgoing kids or by anyone else. On a recent trip to Egypt, the word and its disappearance came to mind. I explained its use by the fact that many of my fellow pupils would have had parents or grandparents or other elder relatives (as I had) who had fought against Egyptians at El Alamein and other battles. I explained the disappearance of the word by the emphasis on so-called political correctness in recent years.
I didn't ever think the word "gyppo" had anything to do with Gypsies.
Still in use today in my neighbourhood is the term "gyppo-guts", referring to diarrhoea. This I assumed to have come from veterans who had suffered diarrhoea in Egypt.
Can anybody please tell me more about the origins of the word "gyppo"?
New Game
buy in, 24 hour phases, classic map, PPSC. We need five more.
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