Re: [Callers] Advice about "gypsy" - Import1

24 Oct 2015

On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 5:17 AM, Chris Page via Callers
&lt;callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:
...
  "Gypsy" comes from Cecil Sharp, when he was
trying to name a figure that
 appeared in the literature of two dancers going around each other.

 My hearsay understanding is that he named it after some Romani dances he
 knew of where partners didn't touch each other.

Sharp called the figure "Whole-Gip" in The Country Dance Book Part II,
and seems to have taken the name from Morris:

    The figures which occur in the course of the dances described in
"The Dancing Master" are very varied and very numerous. With the
exception of the Set, the Side, and the Honour, and others of a like
character, all of which are essentially Country dance figures, I have
been able to connect nearly all of them with similar evolutions in the
Morris or Sword dances. The Whole-Poussette and, of course, the Roll,
are sword-dance figures, and I believe that all those Country Dance
figures, in which an arch is made by the joining of hands,
handkerchiefs, or ribbons, were originally derived from the same
source. Other evolutions such as Whole-Gip, Back-to-Back, Cross-over,
Foot-up, Corners, etc., are familiar Morris figures.

If anyone knows where to look for how Morris dancers got "gip" I'd be
very curious.

http://www.jefftk.com/p/history-of-the-term-gypsy