Tramp

For other uses, see Tramp (disambiguation).

In British English usage a Tramp is a homeless person who travels from place to place, traditionally walking.

While tramps may do odd jobs from time to time, unlike other homeless people they do not seek out regular work and support themselves by other means such as begging or scavenging. This is in contrast to:

• hobos who travel from place to place (often by catching rides on freight trains) looking for work.
• schnorrers, who travel from city to city begging. “Schnorrer” is a Yiddish term.
• bum, a stationary homeless person who does not work, and who begs or steals for a living

Both terms, "tramp" and "hobo" (and the distinction between them), were in common use between the 1880s and the 1940s, and were not limited to the Great Depression.

Like "hobo" and "bum", the word "tramp" is considered somewhat vulgar in American English usage, having been subsumed in more polite contexts by words such as "homeless person" or "vagrant". In colloquial American English, the word "tramp" can also mean a sexually promiscuous female.

It remains relatively more common in British English, but has also been somewhat replaced with "homeless person".

See also

• Vacilando, a kind of tramp for whom the travel as such is more important than the destination.

External links

Look up tramp in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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