Zott

For the dairy company see Zott (dairy company)

Zott (singular Zottī) is the Arabic term for gypsies. The Zott were musicians who migrated in great numbers from Pakistan and India to Middle East about 1000 years ago. Their name was later applied to any itinerant entertainer of Indian origin, and came to be the common name of the Dom people in the Middle East, as English gypsy or tinker with contemptuous connotations. The Al-Qamus Al-Muhit glosses the term as equivalent to Nawar (singular Nawarī).

See also

• Nawar
• Romani

References

• M. J. de Goeie, A Contribution to the History of the Gypsies, Amsterdam (1875, 2007 reprint)