Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 19:35:15 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?ninetyone=20andy?= <andy_91_2000-AT-yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Irish Travellers...


I looked it up in some dictionaries of slang and
carp's one was there.

Piker was also described as someone who tries to avoid
work by disappearing, possibly picking up a pike-staff
before setting out.
 
It was also as pikey and carp's piker linked to toll
roads and turn-pikes in another dictionary, which said
it was a name for travellers common in the UK in the
1950s particularly used in Kent for the hop-pickers.
There was a suggestion that there was a dialect verb
'pike' meaning to travel. Anyway, the travellers who
went into Kent for hop-picking would quite likely have
been in Surrey and Middlesex on their way out again,
so I guess pikey has lasted.

Neither dictionary listed it as an abusive term
though.

Andy



 --- dan combs <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us> wrote: > On
Fri, 4 Oct 2002, ninetyone andy wrote:
> 
> >
> > > Pikey eh?  Do you know the derivation on that?
> >
> > I don't - it'll be my task for the weekend.
> 
> My guess?
> 
> 
> pik·er   Pronunciation Key  (pkr)
> n. Slang
> A cautious gambler.
> A person regarded as petty or stingy.
> 
> Or a person who wirks or travels along a pike
> (road).
> 
> 
> carpo
>  

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com