Dictionary

gippo en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈd͡ʒɪpəʊ/

Etymology

An alteration of gypsy, which is in turn an alteration of Egyptian.

Meanings

1. (UK, countable, offensive, slang, uncountable) A Gypsy.
2. (UK, countable, offensive, rare, slang, uncountable) An Egyptian.
   • Every foreigner in Cairo’s piling into the trains[.] The gyppo porters are having a high old time at the station. 1977, Olivia Manning, chapter 1, in The Danger Tree:
3. (UK, slang, uncountable) Gravy.
   • They were always asking for ‘more gippo’ (gravy) which we got for them if we could. 2006, Mildred Joan Tulip, My experiences as a VAD nurse:
   • He had his “dinner” in his canteen and placed it on the ground to go and “scrounge” a chunk of bread to help “fill up”, and as soon as he turned his back a dog walked in at the door of the barn, where we were “in residence” as they say “higher up”, [only we “flew no flag”], and started lapping up some of the “gippo”, [gravy] of which the said dinner was composed [in fact 'twas more “gippo” than dinner that day, so who could blame a dog for being mistaken]. 2006, George H. Coward, Coward's War:
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable) Ellipsis of gyppo logger.
   alt of gyppo logger
   • But even where the company does its own logging, the size of the timber enables it to use a modified form of the contract system, somewhat analogous to the sweatshop system in other industries and sinisterly named by the I.W.W., the "gyppo" system. 1923, Edward B Mittelman, “The Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen: An Experiment in Industrial Relations”, in Journal of Political Economy, volume 31, number 3, page 316:

Forms

Deriveds

gyppo logger

Descendants

jippo (spectacle, stunt) · jippo (trick, gimmick)