hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar

[Jonathan Lighter]

See HDAS, though the narrowing specifically to "pahandler" strikes me as
new.  (You mean such speakers don't call traditional tramps and hobos
"tramps" and "hobos"?  That would be truly diagnostic.)

The well-known criterion that a hobo is an itinerant who doesn't mond
working has some validity, but it seems to be partly factitious, the result
of social-minded reformers like Joshua Flynt and Nels Anderson.  I have no
idea how many train-hoppers and vagabonds of  ca1900 would have described
themselves as "hobos."

In my childhood, the generic term was "bum."  A "bum" would come up and beg
money.  A "panhandler" tended to be younger, better dressed, and with
a good story - in other words, kind of a specialist.

A "hobo" was a bum who traveled and was possibly less alcoholic.  A beggar
was a bum, but a bum was not absolutely required to be a beggar. Further
than that, all distinctions were moot.

BTW, my grandparents' term, which also included street-corner thugs, was
"loafer."  They used it frequently.  It also, of course, included lazy
persons.

JL
On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 3:02 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Utah Phillips (and the Rose Tatoo) would be bummed to hear that, were he
> living:
>
> http://www.theunion.com/article/20080529/PROSPECTOR/814099722
>
> Of course, their "hobo" was pretty idealized.
>
> Eric
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Dan Nussbaum <yekkey at aol.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dan Nussbaum <yekkey at AOL.COM>
> > Subject:      hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > My wife informs me that her Middle School students consider hobo to be
> > syno=
> > nymous with panhandler or beggar.
> >
> >
> > I would like to know what this esteemed list serve thinks.
> >
> >
> > Dan Nussbaum=20
> >
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