What is the word for people with no money and home?

[GeneD]

What is the word for people with no money and home, who live on the streets and beg for money?

 

[Tarheel]

Homeless.

 

[GeneD]

Yes, I know this one. But are there other words? Especially curious to know some having negative connotation.

 

[GeneD]

It may be useful to say that I'm not going to offend anyone with these words if they exist.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, I know this one. But ARE there other names? Especially curious to know some having negative connotation.

There are a few.

Bum
Hobo
Tramp

 

[Roman55]

Derelict, down-and-out, dosser, tramp, vagrant.

 

[Sue01]

'Vagrant' is a fairly formal word to describe such a person, often used in legal contexts. To my (British English) ears, it does have a negative connotation.

 

[GoesStation]

Hobo and tramp both sound old-fashioned to my AmE ears. Even bum​ seems a bit dated.

 

[Rover_KE]

indigent

 

[bubbha]

beggar, scrounger, panhandler

 

[GoesStation]

beggar, scrounger, panhandler

These terms don't necessarily mean "homeless".

 

[GeneD]

These terms don't necessarily mean "homeless".

And right after you said it, I realized that I shouldn't have assigned some key importance to the fact that these people are homeless.

Do you ever say something like "He's dressed like a vagrant/bum/scrounger/indigent/etc!". I don't mean "exactly you". Is there cases when people say this in English?

 

[GoesStation]

In American English you could say He's dressed like a bum or, in a formal context, like a vagrant. We don't use "scrounger", and using indigent as a countable noun is not natural in this context.

You may see She's dressed like a bag lady​ (an impoverished woman with her possessions in shopping bags).

 

[probus]

Wino.

There are endless ways of denigrating the poorest among us.

 

[GoesStation]

"Homeless" is, I think, by far the commonest term for such people and has been for a long time in American English.

 

[Skrej]

There's the adjective 'destitute', although that doesn't necessarily imply homelessness.

 

[GeneD]

I think I've heard "dressed like a bum" (realised it after GS's post 13) and, for some reason, can easily imagine someone saying "dressed like a vagrant" (even though this word is new for me), but I'm curious now whether it's true considering the word "homeless". "She's dressed like a homeless person"?

 

[GeneD]

Maybe I should explain my question in post #18 and how it is related to the initial question since it seems to be drifting off-topic. The main reason why I asked about the word for homeless people with the negative connotation is that I thought that, knowing the word (or words), it would become clear to me how people speaking English might show their strong disapproval at how people are dressed. It was rather silly of me not to put the question this way from the very start, but unfortunately this bright idea came to me much later. :-( Now I don't know if I should open another thread and make a more precise question, or whether it's a good idea at all to start a thread on such type of languge (which may be offensive) on this forum. Myself, I see it from the perspective that a language is a natural thing and it may not always be politically correct but still commonly used.

And it doesn't mean that I'm going to use the offensive languge (which I already mentioned in post #4). It's just a mere curiosity.

 

[GeneD]

What are they?

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/sjw