Editing Pikey (section)

==Contemporary usage==
''Pikey'' remained, as of 1989, common prison slang for [[Romani people]] or those who have a similar lifestyle of itinerant unemployment and travel.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ken |last1=Smith |first2=Dave |last2=Wait |title=Inside Time |publisher=Harrap |date=1989 |isbn=0-245-54720-7 | pages=235}}</ref> More recently, ''pikey'' was applied to Irish Travellers (other slurs include ''[[tinker]]s'' and ''[[knacker]]s'') and non-Romanichal [[wikt:traveller|travellers]].<ref name="offensive">{{cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Tom |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7446274.stm |title=How offensive is the word 'pikey'? |publisher=BBC News |date=11 June 2008 |access-date=2012-02-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Aidan McGurran |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/10/formula-1-commentator-in-pikey-ofcom-probe-89520-20601991/ |title=mirror.co.uk, Formula 1 commentator in 'pikey' Ofcom probe |work=Mirror|date=10 June 2008 |access-date=2012-02-12}}</ref> In the late 20th century, it came to be used to describe "a lower-class person, regarded as coarse or disreputable".<ref name=OED/><ref name="offensive"/>

The most common contemporary use of ''pikey'' is not as a term for the Romani ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with [[no fixed abode]]. Among English Romani Gypsies the term pikey refers to a Traveller who is not of Romani descent. It may also refer to a member who has been cast out of the family.<ref>{{cite book |first=Manfri Frederick |last=Wood |title=In the life of a Romany gypsy |location=London |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |date=1973 |isbn=0-7100-7595-2}}</ref>

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the definition became even looser and is sometimes used to refer to a wide section of the (generally urban) underclass of the country (in England generally known as [[chav]]s), or merely a person of any social class who "lives on the cheap" such as a [[Bohemianism|bohemian]]. It is also used as an adjective, e.g. "a pikey estate" or "a pikey pub". Following complaints from Travellers' groups about racism, when the term was used by presenter [[Jeremy Clarkson]] as a pun for [[Pike's Peak]] in the television programme ''[[Top Gear (2002 TV series)|Top Gear]]'', the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust ruled that, in this instance, the term merely meant "cheap".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31922773 |publisher=BBC News |title=Top Gear cleared over Pike's Peak pun |date=2015-03-17}}</ref> In doing so, it justified the ascribed meaning by quoting the Wikipedia article for the term.<ref>{{cite news |title=Top Gear cleared by Ofcom after 'pikey' probe |url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/celeb-life/top-gear-cleared-by-ofcom-after-pikey-probe-344805.html |access-date=2015-07-27 |publisher=Irish Examiner |date=2015-07-27}}</ref>

In 2003 the [[Firle]] Bonfire Society burned an effigy of a family of gypsies inside a caravan after travellers damaged local land.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1446744/How-tradition-lit-the-fuse-for-gipsy-effigy.html |location=London |work=The Daily Telegraph |first=Toby |last=Helm |title=How tradition lit the fuse for gipsy effigy |date=15 November 2003}}</ref> The number plate on the caravan read "P1KEY". A storm of protests and accusations of racism rapidly followed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2003/10/29/123401.html |title=Local newspaper article about the Lewes protest |publisher=Archive.theargus.co.uk |date=2003-10-29 |access-date=2012-02-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Mark Townsend |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/nov/16/raceintheuk.uknews |title=National newspaper article about the Lewes protests |work=The Guardian |date=16 November 2003 |access-date=2012-02-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1446835/Lay-off-revellers-who-blew-up-gipsy-caravan-on-my-land-says-viscount.html |location=London |work=The Daily Telegraph |first=Rajeev |last=Syal |title=Lay off revellers who blew up gipsy caravan on my land, says viscount |date=2003-11-16}}</ref> Twelve members of the society were arrested but the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed on a charge of "[[Incitement to ethnic or racial hatred|incitement to racial hatred]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/about/sci/casestudy9_firle.html |title=Safe Communities Initiative: case studies Contingency Planning in Firle |last=Carey |first=Rachel |year=2007 |publisher=Commission for Racial Equality |access-date=16 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126152637/http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/about/sci/casestudy9_firle.html|archive-date=2009-01-26 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

''The Oxford History of English'' refers to:
{{blockquote|young people who use ''charver'' or ''pikey'' to identify a contemporary style of dress or general demeanour suggest an aimless "street" lifestyle, unaware of the Romani origin of the first or of connotation with "gypsy" of the second.

Pikey, formed from turnpike roads, as along with ''pikee'' and ''piker'' been used in the South East [of England] especially since the mid-19th-century to refer to itinerant people of all kinds and been used by travelling people to refer to those of low caste. ''Scally'' a corresponding label originating in the North West of England was taken up by the media and several websites, only to be superseded by ''chav''.

A very recent survey has unearthed 127 synonyms, with ''ned'' favoured in Scotland, ''charver'' in North East England and ''pikey'' across the South [of England].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mugglestone |first=Lynda |title=The Oxford history of English |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2006 |isbn=0-19-924931-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780199544394/page/322 322] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780199544394/page/322 }}</ref>}}