gitano

English

Noun

gitano (plural gitanos or gitanoes)

1. A male gypsy.

   Coordinate term: gitana

   • 1843, George Borrow, The Bible in Spain‎^[1], London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.:

     It was at this town of Badajoz, the capital of Estremadura, that I first fell in with those singular people, the Zincali, Gitanos, or Spanish gypsies.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish gitano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [ʒiˈta.nu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Northwestern) [ʒiˈta.no]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [d͡ʒiˈta.no]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

gitano (feminine gitana, masculine plural gitanos, feminine plural gitanes)

1. Gypsy

Noun

gitano m (plural gitanos, feminine gitana, feminine plural gitanes)

1. Gypsy

   Synonym: (obsolete) bomià

Derived terms

• braç de gitano
• gitanada
• gitanalla

Noun

gitano m (plural gitanos)

1. Gypsy (language)

   Synonym: romaní

Further reading

• “gitano”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “gitano”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “gitano” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “gitano”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Galician

Adjective

gitano (feminine gitana, masculine plural gitanos, feminine plural gitanas, reintegrationist norm)

1. reintegrationist spelling of xitano

Noun

gitano m (plural gitanos, feminine gitana, feminine plural gitanas, reintegrationist norm)

1. reintegrationist spelling of xitano

Further reading

• “gitano”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒiˈta.no/
• Rhymes: -ano
• Hyphenation: gi‧tà‧no

Noun

gitano m (plural gitani, feminine gitana)

1. Gypsy, Roma

Anagrams

• ignota

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian ḥwt

Egyptian kꜣ

Egyptian ptḥ

Egyptian ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥder.

Ancient Greek Αἴγυπτος (Aíguptos)bor.

Latin Aegyptusder.

Spanish Egipto

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Italic *-nosder.

Proto-Italic *-ānos

Latin -ānus

Spanish -ano

Spanish egiptanoder.

Spanish gitano

From egiptano (“Egyptian”), from Ancient Greek Αἴγυπτος (Aíguptos). It was originally mistakenly believed that the Roma/gypsy people originated from Egypt. See also the related etymology of English Gypsy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xiˈtano/ [xiˈt̪a.no]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ano
• Syllabification: gi‧ta‧no

Adjective

gitano (feminine gitana, masculine plural gitanos, feminine plural gitanas)

1. (relational) Gypsy (of or like a Gypsy)

   Synonym: cíngaro

Noun

gitano m (plural gitanos, feminine gitana, feminine plural gitanas)

1. Gypsy

   Synonyms: calé, cíngaro

Derived terms

• brazo de gitano
• entre gitanos no nos leemos la mano
• entre gitanos no nos leemos la suerte
• entre gitanos no nos leemos las cartas
• gitanada
• gitanear
• gitanería

Descendants

• → Catalan: gitano
• → French: gitan

Further reading

• “gitano”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025