What do you call this person?

[English4everyone]

What do you call a very very poor person who doesn't have anything and sleeps on the street, usually in a carton box?

 

[buggles]

What do you call a very very poor person who doesn't have anything and sleeps on the street, usually in a carton box?

It depends how charitable you're feeling! In the UK, we refer to "homeless people" which is non-judgemental, but they can also be called "tramps" or even "derelicts". In the US, they use words like "hobo" and "bum", while "vagrant" is used in both the UK and in the US.

buggles (not a teacher).

 

[emsr2d2]

I think you mean "cardboard box". I generally refer to them as "homeless people" or "the homeless". In third-world countries, I'm aware of terms such as "street kids".

In the UK, there was a very PC (politically correct) term coined, which escapes me now, but there are some suggestions here: Politically correct way of saying homeless without being offensive? - Yahoo! Answers

 

[Barb_D]

It depends how charitable you're feeling! In the UK, we refer to "homeless people" which is non-judgemental, but they can also be called "tramps" or even "derelicts". In the US, they use words like "hobo" and "bum", while "vagrant" is used in both the UK and in the US.

buggles (not a teacher).

In the US, we call them "homeless" as well. I haven't heard the words "hobo" used in my life except in fiction books set in the past when "riding the rails" was considered romantic. We use "bum" for many people, including an athlete who is playing poorly or your Congressman.

We have a PC phrase too, but I can't think of it either.

 

[HanibalII]

'Homeless' is also how it's said in Australia. However, if people choose to be more offencive, 'Hobo', 'Derro', 'Bum', and numerous others are used....It's sad that there are more offensive words to call them than nice/neutral words...

 

[Barb_D]

That PC term has the word "diplaced" in it, I think. I just can't remember it right now, though.

 

[emsr2d2]

The UK PC term was something like "domicilely challenged" or "between homes", but neither of them is exactly right. The latter was connected to "between jobs" meaning unemployed.

 

[Tdol]

I've seen unhoused used too.

 

[BobK]

...
We have a PC phrase too, but I can't think of it either.

Could it be - <hawk, spit> - 'unhomed'?

b

 

[BobK]

[In Australia]..'Hobo', 'Derro', 'Bum', and numerous others are used....

I don't think anyone has mentioned 'derelict' yet - now archaic in Br Eng except when it refers to buildings or property. But that's obviously where 'derro' came from.

b

 

[charliedeut]

I don't think anyone has mentioned 'derelict' yet

Psst... (Look at post #2) :-D

 

[birdeen's call]

In the US, we call them "homeless" as well. I haven't heard the words "hobo" used in my life except in fiction books set in the past when "riding the rails" was considered romantic. We use "bum" for many people, including an athlete who is playing poorly or your Congressman.

We have a PC phrase too, but I can't think of it either.

Wow, that's a minor shock to me. I do hear the word "hobo" on American TV from time to time, and I thought it was a pretty common word. I can only think of one person, Craig Ferguson, who uses the word a lot, and he's not a native speaker of American English, but I'd have bet my arm I've heard it from other people, without any reference to the romance of being homeless. I understand I need to rethink that bet.

 

[Barb_D]

Just to clarify, the idea of being homeless because you have become desitute and lost your home has never been romantic. That's just sad. But there is a romantacized notion that there was a time when there were people with no fixed addess, who hopped on trains (illegally) to take them from one spot to another, sitting around campfire at night with others who did the same thing, and while they had no money they had their freedom, etc. Those are the types of people you might refer to as hobos.

I have never, not once, seen an unfortunate person on the street and heard someone say "We should do something about/for the hobos" or "I was shocked to find a hobo using the bathroom in our office building."

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm guilty of having misunderstood the use of the word "hobo" too, in that case. I thought it was an AmE term for homeless people.

 

[Barb_D]

As with everything, usage can be very regional. You might from someone from the deep South or California weighing in tonight saying "I don't know what this Barb person means. That's all we ever call them!"

However, it does make me remember that "street people" is sometimes heard too.

 

[BobK]

Psst... (Look at post #2) :-D

Sorry - I meant 'indigent' (I thought there was one word... but....)

b

 

[BobK]

I'm guilty of having misunderstood the use of the word "hobo" too, in that case. I thought it was an AmE term for homeless people.

Me too, reinforced by the song There But for Fortune. When Joan Baez sang 'show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain' I wrongly assumed (encouraged by my happy-clappy mentors ;-)) that anyone who slept out in the rain was a hobo.

b