Editing Pikey

{{short description|British pejorative term referring to a person from the Traveller community}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
'''Pikey''' ({{IPAc-en|'|p|aɪ|k|i:}}; also spelled '''pikie''', '''pykie''')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7EGFDwAAQBAJ&q=%22pikie%22+traveller&pg=PA33|quote=pikie.|title=Gypsy and Traveller Girls: Silence, Agency and Power|first=Geetha|last=Marcus|date=25 January 2019|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783030037031}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/chunnelamazingst00feth|url-access=registration|quote=pykie.|title=The Chunnel: The Amazing Story of the Undersea Crossing of the English Channel|first=Drew|last=Fetherston|date=17 July 1997|publisher=Times Books|isbn=9780812921984 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> is a derogatory slang term referring to [[Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people (UK)|Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people]]. It is used mainly in the United Kingdom and in Ireland to refer to people who belong to [[Itinerant groups in Europe|groups which had a traditional travelling lifestyle]].<ref>{{cite web | quote = "It was because there's always someone out there, I feared, who was going to tap me on the shoulder and say "you dear, who do you think you are and where do you get off at, you're a gyspy, you're a pikey"| url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2009/06/25/gloria_buckley_lw_2009_feature.shtml |title="Very Important Pikey" |publisher=BBC |access-date=8 November 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |quote = "Then, a year or so ago, I noticed the words "pikey" and "chav" were being used as synonyms for "common"|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200502280039 |title=New Statesman – Andrew Billen – Common problem |publisher=[[New Statesman]] |access-date=8 November 2009 }}</ref> Groups referred to with this term include [[Irish Travellers]], [[Romanichal|English Gypsies]], [[Kale (Welsh Roma)|Welsh Kale]], [[Scottish Lowlands|Scottish Lowland]] Travellers, [[Scottish Highlands|Scottish Highland]] Travellers, and [[Showman|Funfair Travellers]]. These groups consider the term to be highly derogatory.<ref name="offensive"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/16/gypsy-travellers-discrimination-stigma-poster-campaign|title=Fighting Gypsy discrimination: 'What people ask me is insulting'|first=Amelia|last=Gentleman|newspaper=The Guardian |date=16 May 2017}}</ref>

It is used by extension as a [[Class discrimination|classist]] insult against marginalised [[working class]] communities, similar to the term [[chav]].<ref name="classed intersections">{{cite book |last1=Gidley |first1=Ben |last2=Rooke |first2=Alison|editor1-last=Taylor |editor1-first=Yvette |title=Classed Intersections |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Asdatown: The Intersections of Classed Places and Identities}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The term "pikey" is possibly derived from "pike" which, c. 1520, meant "highway" and is related to the words ''turnpike'' (toll road) and ''pikeman'' (toll collector).<ref name="Eric Partridge 1973, pp691">{{cite book |first1=Eric |last1=Partridge |first2=Jacqueline |last2=Simpson |title=The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang 6th Edition |publisher=Routledge |year=1973 |isbn=0-7100-7761-0 |page=691}}</ref> In [[Robert Henryson]]'s Fable Collection (late 15th century), in the fable of the Two Mice, the thieving mice are referred to on more than one occasion as "pykeris":

<blockquote><poem>
''And in the samin thay went, but mair abaid,''
''Withoutin fyre or candill birnand bricht''
''For commonly sic pykeris luffis not lycht.''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fox|first1=Denton|title=The Poems of Robert Henryson|date=1981|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|page=11}}</ref>

And together they went, but more about, 
without fire or candle burning bright
For commonly, such thieves do not like light.
</poem></blockquote>

==19th century and 20th century==
[[Charles Dickens]] in 1837 writes disparagingly of itinerant ''pike-keepers''.<ref name="Eric Partridge 1973, pp691"/>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' traced the earliest use of "pikey" to ''[[The Times]]'' in August 1838, which referred to strangers who had come to the [[Isle of Sheppey]] as "pikey-men".<ref name=OED>''Oxford English Dictionary''</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=September 2023}} In 1847, J. O. Halliwell in his ''Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words'' recorded the use of "pikey" to mean a [[gypsy]].<ref name=OED/> In 1887, W. D. Parish and W. F. Shaw in the ''Dictionary of Kentish Dialect'' recorded the use of the word to mean "a turnpike traveller; a vagabond; and so generally a low fellow".<ref name=OED/>{{Full citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Thomas Acton's ''Gypsy Politics and Social Change'' notes [[John Camden Hotten]]'s ''[[A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words|Slang Dictionary]]'' (1887) as similarly stating:

<blockquote>Hotten's dictionary of slang gives ''pike at'' as ''go away'' and ''Pikey'' as ''a tramp or a Gypsy''. He continues a ''pikey-cart'' is, in various parts of the country, one of those habitable vehicles suggestive of country life. Possibly the term has some reference to those who continually use the ''pike'' or turnpike road.<ref>{{cite book|last=Acton|first=Thomas|title=Gypsy politics and social change|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1974|isbn=978-0-7100-7838-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA73|access-date=14 August 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

The ''Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society'' similarly agrees the term ''pikey'' solely applied (negatively) to Romani people.<ref>Gypsy Lore Society, ''Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society'' The Society of Gypsy Lore volume 6: 1912</ref><ref>Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland, ''A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian slang, pidgin English, gypsies' jargon and other irregular phraseology'' Volume 2, G. Bell: 1897, 915 pages:</ref>

==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>}}

==See also==
* [[Chav]]
* [[Eshay]]
* [[Didicoy]]
* [[New Age travellers]]
* [[Trailer trash]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book | editor=John Ayto  | title=The Oxford Dictionary of Slang | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | year=1999 | isbn=0-19-863157-X | url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00john }}
* {{cite book | editor=T. F. Hoad  | title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | year=1986 | isbn=0-19-283098-8 | url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic00tfho }}
* {{cite book | author=Tony Thorne | title=Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang | publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing Plc]] | year=1990 | isbn=0-7475-4594-4}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2887575.stm Anger over "pikey" slur] ([[BBC News]])
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6988676.stm Davidson exits after TV gay row] (BBC News)&nbsp;— use of "pikey" by [[Marco Pierre White]]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7446274.stm How offensive is the word "pikey"?] (BBC News)
* [http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_3969520,00.html Brundle escapes punishment for "pikey" comment] (Planet F1)

{{Ethnic slurs}}
{{Irish Travellers}}

[[Category:Antiziganism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British slang]]
[[Category:Class-related slurs]]
[[Category:English words]]
[[Category:Ethnic and religious slurs]]
[[Category:Irish Travellers]]
[[Category:Romani in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Youth culture in the United Kingdom]]