Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GIPSY, n.

1. The Gipsies are a race of vagabonds which infest Europe, Africa, and Asia, strolling about and subsisting mostly by theft, robbery and fortune-telling. The name is supposed to be corrupted from Egyptian, as they were thought to have come from Egypt. But their language indicates that they originated in Hindoostan. Grellman.
2. A reproachful name for a dark complexion. Shak.
3. A name of slight reproach to a woman; sometimes implying artifice or cunning. A slave I am to Clara's eyes: / The gipsy knows her power and flies. Prior.