RUMMY or RUMY, as applied to women, is simply the Gipsy word romi, a contraction of romni, a wife; the husband being her rom.

BIVVY for beer, has been derived from the Italian bevere, but it is probably Gipsy, since in the old form of the latter language, Biava or Piava, means to drink.  To pivit, is still known among English Gipsies.

RIGS—­running one’s rigs is said to be Gipsy, but the only meaning of rig, so far as I am able to ascertain in Rommany, is a side or an edge.  It is, however, possible that one’s side may in earlier times have been equivalent to “face, or encounter.”  To rikker or rigger in Gipsy, is to carry anything.

MOLL, a female companion, is probably merely the nickname for Mary, but it is worth observing, that Mal in old Gipsy, or in German Gipsy, means an associate, and Mahar a wife, in Hindustani.

STASH, to be quiet, to stop, is, I think, a variation of the common Gipsy word hatch, which means precisely the same thing, and is derived from the older word atchava.

STURABAN, a prison, is purely Gipsy.  Mr Hotten says it is from the Gipsy distarabin, but there is no such word beginning with dis, in the English Rommany dialect.  In German Gipsy a prison is called stillapenn.

TINY or TEENY has been derived from the Gipsy tano, meaning “little.”

TOFFER, a woman who is well dressed in new clean clothes, probably gets the name from the Gipsy tove, to wash (German Gipsy Tovava).  She is, so to speak, freshly washed.  To this class belong Toff, a dandy; Tofficky, dressy or gay, and Toft, a dandy or swell.

TOOL as applied to stealing, picking pockets, and burglary, is, like tool, to drive with the reins; derived beyond doubt from the Gipsy word tool, to take or hold.  In all the Continental Rommany dialects it is Tulliwawa.

PUNCH, it is generally thought, is Anglo-Indian, derived directly from the Hindustani Pantch or five, from the five ingredients which enter into its composition, but it may have partially got its name from some sporting Gipsy in whose language the word for five is the same as in Sanskrit.  There have been thousands of “swell” Rommany chals who have moved in sporting circles of a higher class than they are to be found in at the present day.

“VARDO formerly was Old Cant for a waggon” (The Slang Dictionary).  It may be added that it is pure Gipsy, and is still known at the present day to every Rom in England.  In Turkish Gipsy, Vordon means a vehicle, in German Gipsy, Wortin.

“Can you VOKER Rommany?” is given by Mr Hotten as meaning “Can you speak Gipsy,”—­but there is no such word in Rommany as voker.  He probably meant “Can you rakker”—­pronounced very often Roker.  Continental Gipsy Rakkervava.  Mr Hotten derives it from the Latin Vocare!