the word "pikey"

[stevo25]

just read this on the bbc website
How offensive is the word 'pikey'?





By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine


Formula One commentator Martin Brundle is being investigated by media watchdog Ofcom after using the term "pikeys" in a television broadcast. But where does the word come from and how offensive is it?
It's a word very rarely heard on television.
In an interview with Bernie Ecclestone before Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Brundle referred to repairs being made to the track.
"There are some pikeys out there putting down new tarmac at Turn 10. Are they out of the way yet?"
Ofcom said it had received seven complaints and ITV apologised to viewers.
Brundle isn't the first media figure to be condemned for using the word, which is considered insulting by the traveller community.
The OED says it's an offensive term

Last year on ITV's Hell's Kitchen, chef Marco Pierre White said: "I don't think it was a pikey's picnic tonight."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its first use in print was in the Times in 1837, referring to strangers who had come to the Isle of Sheppey island to harvest. Later that century it meant a "turnpike traveller" or vagabond.
But in more recent years it has become a term of abuse and in the eyes of the law using it can even be deemed a racist offence, given its association with Irish travellers and Roma Gypsies.
In December, at Lewes Magistrates' Court, Lee Coleman, 28, admitted using racially-aggravated threatening words and behaviour after a row with a nightclub manageress.
He had told her: "I'm not paying you, pikey."
Badge of honour
Charlotte Brewer, Oxford University lexicographer, says the OED clearly labels it as an offensive term that came from the word "pike" meaning a road on which a toll is collected.
ITV has apologised for Brundle's comments

It didn't make the early editions of the OED at the start of the 20th Century, which probably means it did not have any literary or newspapers sources at the time, although it was used. However "piker" did get into the first edition, which meant much the same thing.
In 1955, Peter Wildeblood, a champion of gay rights whose campaigning later helped decriminalise homosexuality, used the word as a badge of pride: "My family's all pikeys, but we ain't on the road no more."
Then it was a slang word, says Ms Brewer, but not necessarily an unpleasant or insulting one.
"But as we can see from the 2006 entry, the word seems to have come back into use more recently, and the OED editors use the words 'squalid, disreputable, vulgar' to define it. They are sure it is an insulting term.".
This is the language of social discrimination and it's quite shocking that this language is now being bandied about


Slang expert Tony Thorne

There is no word more offensive to a traveller, says Cliff Codona, a Roma Gypsy and chairman of the National Travellers Action Group.
"I'm very proud of Lewis Hamilton. It's fantastic what he's doing for the reputation of the country, absolutely outstanding.
"I would never think of calling that boy a certain derogatory word - that's what 'pikey' is to me and my community."
He senses that it is gaining popularity as a term of abuse because people have realised how insulting it is.
Slang expert Tony Thorne says "pikey" was being used as far back as the 16th Century but has only become more offensive in the mainstream in the past four or five years.
"Teenagers have been using it for the last few years to replace 'chav'. It's used pejoratively as someone who is sub-proletariat like 'gypsy' or 'gyppo' was used in the 1940s and 50s."
It used to be a word only used among country people who were speaking disapprovingly of a tramp.
Social prejudice
Brundle probably thinks he can still use the word "pikey" in that innocent way, but his attitude is naive, says Thorne, because it has become an insult and no-one would accept it as a description of themselves.
When used now in urban circles, it usually means a person is beyond the class system, someone without an identity who doesn't matter, and is off the social radar, Thorne suggests. Only in the villages is it likely to have retained its ethnic association with the traveller or gypsy community.
Is "posh-bashing" just as bad?

Thorne detects its increased use as reflecting a period in which, post-political correctness, social prejudice is now more acceptable.
"The language of snobbishness and class distinction has come right back, with words like 'posh' or 'pleb' or 'prol', words I thought had disappeared in the late 60s.
"This is the language of social discrimination and it's quite shocking that this language is now being bandied about. It started with 'chav' and then the 'posh' stuff about David Cameron and Boris Johnson."
Often these words are used by people who have always been prejudiced and nasty and who are now feeling they can safely express themselves again, he says, although this "petty snobbishness" has always been lurking below the surface of public debate.
But not everyone believes the word is quite so politically charged.
In his Daily Mail column, Des Kelly wrote: "To consider pikey a racial slur is as stupid as believing the word 'hippy' has racist connotations, or that 'hoodie' is offensive.
"Ban pikey, and then you might as well outlaw chav, townie, trailer trash, Hooray Henry, goth, Sloane, tinker and many more fairly innocuous labels."




some of the comments are quite funny

[Analoguesat]

Pikeys is no worse than the "gyppos" term that we used to use for the travellers community. It was perfectly socially acceptable then so whats xhanged.

The pc brigade make me mad - the folk have chosen their preferred lifestyle - and thats wandering around the country sponging off the state and wrecking the sites they park up at. Leaving the harrassed locals to pick up the clean-up bill of course.

[fj1200]

They're called knackers over here (Ireland). But compared to a new breed of thieving lowlifes that have invaded us, Romanian Gypsies, they are almost pillars of society.

[merlodlliw]

In Gresford, a village within Wrexham County, leading towards Chester,
in the middle of Gresford we have "PIKEY LANE" this lane runs off the Old Chester Rd, this lane is hundreds of years old.

In the village of Rosett, Wrexham County,this is a very leafy area has is
Gresford, well in Rosett, 6 travellers have bought two acres of land,this was bought by a third party, on Bank Holiday (may) weekend,they moved
in put down hardcore and moved the caravans in. All hell let loose, but
because they own the land,Wrexham County Council have asked them
to put in planning applications within 28 days,the Council collect refuse
from them weekly(fortnightly for everyone else),the Councils legal team
informed a full Council meeting, that has they own the land,and has they have broken no Criminal or Civil law,even if a refusual was given by the Council for planning,if they appealed, the Council would loose.
The travellers have let it be known, that they can not be moved for eight years, that is the time it would take Wrexham Council, to appeal to the Welsh Assembley,House of Lords,and all the Europe courts.
This land is also on a flood plain,so no homes can be built,and is agricultural, it was stated by the Council that the travellers had previous
on two occasions refused an offer to rent space in the local transit camp
the travellers saying, all six families & 12 caravans would have been seperated. This is the first time this has occured in Wrexham,which was
the first town in North Wales to build a large travellers camp with all facilities including showers.
At no time have any travellers,which have been in Wrexham for over a century ever complained about Pikey Lane,Gresford, but these are new arrivals from accross the water.
We all hope Wrexham Council have the balls to retain the lane name,but in this PC world who knows, I can be called a Gog,Taff,leeky,jacko & dont give a toss, the world has gone mad.
I give the postcode so you can google in on Pikey Lane,Gresford,Wrexham
while it still remains. Post Code is LL12 8TT

Bob.

[stevo25]

"but you have to bear in mind they are a "minority" and so deserve all benefits from being that"
this is what i was told as a school governor by the local education authoritys "travellers unit" so i said how do they prove they are a traveller? ( they are allowed if memory serves right an extra 15 days off school)
this question they skirted around saying stuff like these people live in semi squaller by the side of a road with no electric or running water.
Bollo(ks 1 of the familys (knackers) at school has 4 kids there mum drives an x5 and dad a clk320 soft top!!!
My kids school is a small inner city school with only 200 pupils and about 30 are "travellers of irish or romani origin"

[stevo25]

Originally Posted by merlodlliw

In Gresford, a village within Wrexham County, leading towards Chester,
in the middle of Gresford we have "PIKEY LANE" this lane runs off the Old Chester Rd, this lane is hundreds of years old.

In the village of Rosett, Wrexham County,this is a very leafy area has is
Gresford, well in Rosett, 6 travellers have bought two acres of land,this was bought by a third party, on Bank Holiday (may) weekend,they moved
in put down hardcore and moved the caravans in. All hell let loose, but
because they own the land,Wrexham County Council have asked them
to put in planning applications within 28 days,the Council collect refuse
from them weekly(fortnightly for everyone else),the Councils legal team
informed a full Council meeting, that has they own the land,and has they have broken no Criminal or Civil law,even if a refusual was given by the Council for planning,if they appealed, the Council would loose.
The travellers have let it be known, that they can not be moved for eight years, that is the time it would take Wrexham Council, to appeal to the Welsh Assembley,House of Lords,and all the Europe courts.
This land is also on a flood plain,so no homes can be built,and is agricultural, it was stated by the Council that the travellers had previous
on two occasions refused an offer to rent space in the local transit camp
the travellers saying, all six families & 12 caravans would have been seperated. This is the first time this has occured in Wrexham,which was
the first town in North Wales to build a large travellers camp with all facilities including showers.
At no time have any travellers,which have been in Wrexham for over a century ever complained about Pikey Lane,Gresford, but these are new arrivals from accross the water.
We all hope Wrexham Council have the balls to retain the lane name,but in this PC world who knows, I can be called a Gog,Taff,leeky,jacko & dont give a toss, the world has gone mad.
I give the postcode so you can google in on Pikey Lane,Gresford,Wrexham
while it still remains. Post Code is LL12 8TT

Bob.

ffs
i cant see the site but there seems to be some big houses there
(maybe im blind )

[merlodlliw]

Originally Posted by stevo25

ffs
i cant see the site but there seems to be some big houses there
(maybe im blind )

No I was guiding you to the street(lane name only)


Bob

[merlodlliw]

Originally Posted by stevo25

"but you have to bear in mind they are a "minority" and so deserve all benefits from being that"
this is what i was told as a school governor by the local education authoritys "travellers unit" so i said how do they prove they are a traveller? ( they are allowed if memory serves right an extra 15 days off school)
this question they skirted around saying stuff like these people live in semi squaller by the side of a road with no electric or running water.
Bollo(ks 1 of the familys (knackers) at school has 4 kids there mum drives an x5 and dad a clk320 soft top!!!
My kids school is a small inner city school with only 200 pupils and about 30 are "travellers of irish or romani origin"

This crowd have new 4X4s, new flat tops and had the cash to buy the
land, but will know how to claim, and get it, surprising how Councils
back down to minority groups,but then half the employees of Councils
dislike normal,honest people, at one time the Romany was respected
leaving his site clean, now they deficate in public by the front door.
So if you deal in cash only, you have no savings,as they say.

Bob

[Miss.Purewhite]

never thought so much could be written about the word pikey.
I've heard it used as a verb: to pike = to quit or bail out on something.
"Where is she? She's not coming - she's piking"

[merlodlliw]

Originally Posted by Miss.Purewhite

never thought so much could be written about the word pikey.
I've heard it used as a verb: to pike = to quit or bail out on something.
"Where is she? She's not coming - she's piking"

So now the fish will have to be renamed, sorry Pike you are not PC so
you are now to be called fish with no name.

And of course I can not call my Pikel a Pikel any more,I will call it
a tool for lifting hay.

Anyone towing a caravan and owning a house will have to be called
a caravan towing person taking the michael, but if your vehicle is
untaxed and uninsured you then become disadvantaged towing
your home, so are exempt from prosecution. And no traveller will be stopped from using heating oil or red diesel as this part of their
culture so must be protected.

See you all at Appleby Fair. Where PC is forgotten for a week,much
like channel 4 where, F..K is accepted as a correct PC word.so long as it is said every minute. And no vehicle without a license will be dipped for red diesel testing following PC advices.

Bob