Tramp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In British English usage a Tramp is a long term homeless person who travels from place to place as an itinerant vagrant, traditionally walking or hiking all year round. They often left chalk signs on houses or at various points along their traditional routes. They also developed a slang language of their own.
While some tramps may do odd jobs from time to time, unlike other temporarily homeless people they do not seek out regular work and support themselves by other means such as begging or scavenging. This is in contrast to:
- hobos who travel from place to place (often by catching rides on freight trains) looking for work.
- schnorrers, who travel from city to city begging. “Schnorrer” is a Yiddish term.
- bum, a stationary homeless person who does not work, and who begs or steals for a living in one place
Both terms, "tramp" and "hobo" (and the distinction between them), were in common use between the 1880s and the 1940s, and were not limited to the Great Depression.
Like "hobo" and "bum", the word "tramp" is considered somewhat vulgar in American English usage, having been subsumed in more polite contexts by words such as "homeless person" or "vagrant". In colloquial American English, the word "tramp" can also mean a sexually promiscuous female or even prostitute.
It remains relatively more common in current British English, but has also been somewhat replaced with "homeless person". Tramps used to be known in England and Wales as 'gentlemen of the road' [1].
[edit] See also
- Vacilando, a kind of tramp for whom the travel as such is more important than the destination.
- The Tramp as portrayed by Charlie Chaplin.
- WH Davies poet, tramp and author of The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp in 1910.
[edit] External links
