I was talking to my mum yesterday, about the old west country days and ways...

I asked her if a certain notoriously handsome charming rogue uncle had any 'gypsy' in him...?
He was a bit of a rural rebel heart throb back in the rock n roll era..
It was a positive and plausible question, using a word easily understood by my 86 year old mum..
The context being clear to her, and I suppose also any urban D H Lawrence readers...

Same as my mum is happy to say we've got some Jew in us.. [which we have]..
No problems in the privacy of her kitchen...

But a few years ago when she still went out doing her own shopping,
she would casually tell any shop assistant she was careful with the pennies,
because "she couldn't help being Jewish..."
Completely oblivious to the cringes of young shoppers overhearing her...

Context makes a real difference...