hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's interesting that the word "hobo" ever appeared. In the late 1880s,
"tramp" and "vagabond" were in formal as well as colloquial use, and "bum"
was becoming increasingly common.  A "tramp printer," along with similar
tradesmen, would have been an "itinerant."

It's especially interesting since the ety. of "hobo" remains unknown.

BTW, the fact that a "tramp printer" travels and works doesn't entail that
a "tramp" does either one.

I'm not sure how "tramp steamer" fits into this.

There is also "tramp" in the opprobrious female sense.  James T. Farrell,
of Chicago, and others, also used "bum" in this way.

JL
On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 9:58 AM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <
JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:     >
> Poster:       "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
>              <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My father insisted that "tramp" was an honorable rather than pejorative
> term for a migratory worker.
>
> He was a newspaperman, and in his field there was a long tradition of
> "tramp printers".  These were skilled workers in the printing field who
> traveled from job to job, staying at one location (typically a newspaper)
> as long or as short as they wished and then travelling on to a new job.
>
> I checked four online dictionaries (urbandictionary, thefreedictionary,
> dictionary.com, and Merriam-Webster), and none of them gave the
> definition of tramp as a worker, perhaps a skilled worker, who travelled
> between jobs.
>
>    - James A. Landau
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org