A phono-semantic matching of various European exonyms for Roma people like Yiddish ציגײַנער (tsigayner) and French gitan, with reinforcement from the root צ־ע־ן (forming words related to wandering). By surface analysis, צֹעַן + ־י, as in, someone from the Egyptian city of Tanis, known as צֹעַן (Ṣoʿan) in Hebrew.