Pikey

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Pikey is a pejorative slang term used primarily in England, originally referring to travellers, sometimes mistakenly called "gypsies". The Oxford English Dictionary traced its use in 1837 by Times, “referring to strangers harvesting in the Isle of Sheppey island”. Later that century it meant a "turnpike traveller" or vagabond. Recently, its use was associated with Irish travellers and non-Roma Gypsies.[1][2]

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[edit] Contemporary usage

Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Gypsy ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode.[citation needed]

In recent years, the definition has become even looser and is sometimes used to refer to a wide section of the (generally urban) underclass of the country, or merely a person of any social class who "lives on the cheap". This seems to be the meaning intended by Stephen Fry in an episode of QI, grouping together "hoodies, pikeys and chavs", and intimating that these people are of a sort who "go out on the town, beating people up and drinking Bacardi Breezers".

The term is considered to have negative connotations; even when it refers to others, many people still consider it to be derogatory and offensive. "Pikey" is frequently used as an adjective, as in "he lives on a pikey estate", "those clothes look pikey" or "(name of cheap shop) is a pikey shop". However, "pike", a derivative, is also occasionally used as a verb, a synonym for "steal", as in "Someone's piked my bike".[citation needed]

Negative English attitudes towards "pikeys" were a running joke in the 2000 Guy Ritchie film Snatch, making the line "I fucking hate pikeys" one of many oft-quoted lines amongst the film's fans. For his role in the film, actor Brad Pitt learned how to speak fluent "pikey" (actually a barely intelligible patois used for comic effect which became known informally as Hyper-Gyp and/or Speed-Pyke).[citation needed]

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.

The term "pikey" is used widely all around the fringes of Greater London and particularly in the region of West London near Heathrow Airport and all of the neighbouring boroughs, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Slough, Staines, Uxbridge, etc., where large numbers of travellers or gypsies have settled over decades.[citation needed] It is generally used as a description of those people and their classes or types and is therefore a stereotype of those people from the areas where in the 1920s to 1960s a lot of unused land was bought or occupied and unplanned development took place.[citation needed] The term "pikey" is also used as a pejorative term for those people and for their perceived traits.[citation needed] Sometimes, the term is used emotively and indicates an element of envy, because some types of work or business are viewed as "wheeler-dealer" or "pikey" business practices.[citation needed]

A well known example of the word's use in popular culture is on the television show, The Catherine Tate Show, where Catherine Tate playing a cheeky schoolgirl named Lauren often uses phrases such as "Are you callin' me a pikey?" to suggest that others are 'disrespecting' her.

In English football culture the term Pikey is often used as a nickname for fans of Gillingham F.C. particularly by rival fans of nearby Millwall.[1] During matches between the two clubs Millwall fans are often heard singing "The wheels on your house go round and round".[2] Many Gillingham fans do not consider the term "Pikey" insulting and many have embraced it with Gillingham fans referring to themselves and the club as the "Pikey Army" in the same way other fans use "Red Army" and "Blue Army".[citation needed] Also singing many songs embracing the label such as "Welcome to Pikey-ville" at the beginning of home games.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^  John Ayto (Editor) (1999). The Oxford Dictionary of Slang. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-863157-X. 
  2. ^  T. F. Hoad (Editor) (1986). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283098-8. 
  3. ^  Tony Thorne (1990). Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0-7475-4594-4. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ news.bbc.co.uk, How offensive is the word 'pikey'?
  2. ^ mirror.co.uk, Formula 1 commentator in 'pikey' Ofcom probe