Quote Originally Posted by Marked Man
My apology to you if that's not how you meant it. WHen you threw in the analogy with an identifiable ethnic-cultural group, it seemed to suggest you were using the word to refer to an ethnic-cultural group.

Given the term's origins though, you shouldn't be so surprised that people see it as an expression of prejudice.
Fair enough. Never really thought of it that way. Should point out that travellers had nothing to do with the conversation and my meaning was quite clear (given context, etc,. which you can't really put in a random written internet post), so my initial point stands!