It refers to both the language and the people. I checked originally in the "Oxford" and the "Cambridge" hardback dictionaries. If you look at the online "FreeDictionary" (and thesaurus, lower down on the page) you get basically the same results:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Romany Rom.a.ny or Rom.a.ni (rm-n, rm-) n. pl. Romany or Rom.a.ies also Romani or Rom.a.nis 1. A Gypsy. 2. The Indic language of the Gypsies. Also called Gypsy. adj. Of or relating to the Gypsies or their language or culture. [Romany romani, feminine of romano, gypsy, from rom, man, from Prakrit oma, man of a low caste, of Dravidian origin.] [The American HeritageR Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright C2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.] But, as you can see from the above (and following through the links to the various terms), all sorts of words can be used, including "Rom": Rom (rm) n. 1. A Gypsy, especially a Gypsy man or boy. 2. (used with a pl. verb) Gypsies considered as a group. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Rom I've been away from Britain too long to know what current usage is and, especially, to know what is "politically correct" today (for tomorrow it will surely change). To my mind, an important aspect is the etymological angle: "rom" has neither a Latin nor Romanian connotation, but probably derives from the Prakrit (Indian) "oma" (see above). See also the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people which states: "There is no connection between the name Roma (ethnicity) and the city of Rome, ancient Rome, Romania, the Romanian people or the Romanian language." Gypsy is an "Alteration of Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien, Egyptian (so called because Gypsies were thought to have come from Egypt)" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gypsy So, in the 20th century, there was a tendency to reject the term "gypsy" as misleading, since the Egyptian link was considered an error. But I believe it is still the usual word used in Britain, in spoken language. Many other words, like "handicapped", "drunkard", "sick" or "negro", have similar problems of usage. Once they have been used often enough in a derogatory manner, they lose their status, can even change in their meaning, and become, as words, "personae non grata" - just as their subjects have. The Wikipedia article referred to above describes this all too well for the Gypsies / Rom. John Byrde
