Pikey
Pikey is a pejorative slang term used in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Though it originally referred to Gypsies, Irish Travellers and other travellers, it has come to be used as a term for members of Britain's urban lower class.
Etymology
Traditionally the word referred to Gypsies or vagrants. The first recorded use was in 1847 [1]. Though sources agree that the word derives from "pike" [2] [3], the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (which gives pikie as an alternative spelling) indicates that the "precise origins of these terms (and the American term piker) [are] unclear because of the convergence of two similar senses of pike" [4]: the first is turnpike, a road on which a toll is collected; the second is an archaic British English verb meaning to depart or travel.
Contemporary usage
In recent years, the definition has become looser and is sometimes used to refer to a wide section of the (generally urban) underclass of the country, particularly those on whom the lower middle classes look down, or merely a person of any social class who "lives on the cheap". When used to refer to either Irish Travellers or Gypsies, it is considered to have racist connotations; even when it refers to others, many people still consider it to be derogatory and offensive. However, it is also commonly used as a synonym of chav, a word which is not regarded as having racist overtones.
Negative British attitudes towards "pikeys" (in this case meaning Irish Travellers) were a running joke in the 2000 Guy Ritchie film Snatch, making the line "I fucking hate pikeys" (often said with a thick accent) one of many oft-quoted lines amongst the film's fans. For his role in the film, actor Brad Pitt convincingly learned how to speak fluent "pikey" (actually an unintelligible patois used for comic effect).
Related terms
Related terms for urban or suburban miscreants can be found in the dictionary entry for "chav". The popularity of these terms has grown since the 1980s, and their usage reflects serious and light-hearted issues arising from changes in British urban life rather than an increased need to characterize the lifestyle of travellers.
Pikey has quite a different meaning from crustie - a word which became popular during the 1990s and refers to a kind of anarcho-punk/hippie traveller/squatter who rejects many aspects of modern society and identifies with the underground festival and protest culture, and in particular, often listens to crust punk music.
The American terms "trailer trash" and "white trash" are similar in the condescension and disdain with which they are used, though the stereotypes differ in some particulars.
See also
References
- ^ John Ayto (Editor) (1999). The Oxford Dictionary of Slang. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019863157X.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ T. F. Hoad (Editor) (1986). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192830988.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Tony Thorne (1990). Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0747545944.