View source for Working Class History

{| class="wikitable"
|'''Term''' 
|'''Contextual note'''
|'''Time period/ Region note'''
|'''References'''
|-
|'''able bodied poor'''
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|'''achievement gap'''
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|APA Style – Socioeconomic status
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|'''alms'''

'''alms person'''

'''almsman'''

'''almswoman'''
|Charitable donations of food or money to the poor or those considered unable to look after themselves
|UK
|Historic England - Disability Glossary
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|'''bankrupt'''
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|'''beggar/s''' 

'''bag lady'''

'''bag man'''

'''bag woman'''

'''bagman'''

'''bagwoman'''

'''beachcomber'''

'''beggarman'''

'''beggarwoman'''

'''bludger'''

'''borrower'''

'''Cadger'''

'''chav'''

'''Dawdler'''

'''derelict'''

'''derro'''

'''dosser'''

'''down-and-out'''

'''down-and-outer'''

'''freeloader'''

'''grifter'''

'''hanger-on'''

'''leech'''

'''mendicant/s'''

'''mooch'''

'''moocher/s''' 

'''mosquito'''

'''outcast/s'''

'''outcaste/s'''

'''palliard'''

'''panhandler/s'''

'''parasite/s'''

'''scroat'''

'''schnorrer'''

'''scrounge'''

'''scrounger/s'''

'''sorner'''

'''sponge/s'''

'''sponger/s'''

'''starveling'''

'''street dweller'''

'''street people'''

'''streety'''

'''sundowner'''

'''supplicant'''

'''swagman'''

'''tussocker'''

'''quandong'''
|A destitute person seeking money or help from members of the public
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|Historic England - Disability Glossary
|-
|'''bridewell/s'''
|Originally a type of hospital, first established in the 16<sup>th</sup> century for the improvement of the ‘idle poor’. Eventually became houses of correction for beggars and petty criminals
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|Historic England - Disability Glossary
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|'''bum/s'''

'''stumblebum'''

'''bindle stiff'''

'''deadbeat'''
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|'''busker/s'''

'''busking'''

'''street performance'''
|First noted in the English language in the 1860s. From the Spanish root word buscar, meaning “to seek”.
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|'''chav/s'''

'''chavvy'''
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|BBC – Stop use of ‘chav’
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|'''dosser'''
|Refers to a homeless and jobless person
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|'''ghetto'''

'''ghettoes'''

'''inner city'''
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|APA Style – Socioeconomic status
|-
|'''guttersnipe'''

'''street urchin'''
|A ‘street urchin’, or someone from the lowest social or economic class; a vagrant or homeless person
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|Word Hippo - Guttersnipe
|-
|'''have-not/s'''

'''have not/s''' 

'''haves'''
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|'''hick/s'''
|US term for ‘unsophisticated or uneducated people from the countryside’
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|'''hobo/s'''

'''hoboes''' 

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|'''homeless'''

'''the homeless'''

'''the projects'''
|Homeless is generally acceptable as an adjective to describe people without a fixed residence. Avoid the term "the homeless." Instead: homeless people, people without housing or people without homes. Mention that a person is homeless only when relevant.
|
|Paula Froke - AP Stylebook

APA Style – Socioeconomic status
|-
|'''idle poor'''
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|'''impotent'''
|In its early English sense referred to people considered unable to look after themselves for reasons of age, infirmity, or disability. The “impotent poor” were distinguished from the “able bodied” poor in legislation
|UK
|Historic England - Disability Glossary
|-
|'''inmates'''
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|
|<nowiki>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/04/12/what-words-we-use-and-avoid-when-covering-people-and-incarceration</nowiki> 
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|'''itinerant'''
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|'''job seeker/s'''

'''job-seeker/s'''

'''the unemployed'''
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|'''juvenille delinquent'''

'''enfant trouvé'''

'''gutterpup'''

'''hooligan'''

'''minx'''

'''mischief-maker'''

'''orphan'''

'''prankster'''

'''punk'''

'''rapscallion'''

'''rascal'''

'''tearaway'''

'''wastrel'''

'''whippersnapper'''  

|
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|Cataloging Lab - Problem LCSH  
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|'''less educated'''

'''high school dropout'''
|Focus on what people have, not what they lack
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|'''low class people'''

'''low-class people'''

'''laboring class'''

'''labouring class'''
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|'''mudlark'''
|Someone, especially a young child, who is poorly or raggedly dressed
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|Word Hippo - Mudlark
|-
|'''needy'''

'''the needy'''
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|'''ne’er do well'''

'''never do well'''

'''good for nothing'''

'''no-good'''

'''no good'''

'''no goodnik'''
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|'''pariah''' 

'''castaway'''

'''castoff'''

'''dogie'''

'''drifter'''

'''exile'''

'''flotsam'''

'''gamin'''

'''jetsam'''

'''loafer'''

'''mudlark'''

'''outcast'''

'''perisher'''

'''person non grata'''

'''puck'''

'''recluse'''

'''reprobate'''

'''scallywag'''

'''scapegrace'''

'''scarecrow'''

'''stray'''

'''tearaway'''

'''tyke'''

'''urchin'''

'''waif'''

'''wretch''' 

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|'''pauper/s'''
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|'''pikey/s'''
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|'''poor'''

'''the poor'''

'''poor people'''

'''poverty'''

'''destitution'''

'''pov'''
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|'''poverty stricken'''
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|APA Style – Socioeconomic status
|-
|'''ragamuffin'''
|Refers to a dirty, shabbily-dressed child
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|Word Hippo - Ragamuffin
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|'''tatterdemalion'''
|Refers to a person dressed in rags
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|Word Hippo - Tatterdemalion
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|'''tramps'''

'''Trampy'''

'''The great unwashed'''

'''Scally'''
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|'''urchin'''
|Refers to someone, especially a young child, who is poorly or raggedly dressed
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|'''unhoused person/people'''
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|Cataloging Lab - Problem LCSH 

<nowiki>https://archive.curbed.com/2020/6/11/21273455/homeless-people-definition-copy-editing</nowiki> 
|-
|'''Unskilled labour/ers'''

'''Unskilled labor/ers'''
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|Cataloging Lab - Problem LCSH
|-
|'''vagabond/s'''
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|'''vagrant/s'''

'''vagrancy'''
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|'''weary willy'''
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|'''welfare reliant'''
|Avoid language that focuses on blaming the individual or on individual deficits
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|APA Style – Socioeconomic status
|-
|'''white trash'''
|US term for lower class white people
|USA
|Wikipedia – List of ethnic slurs


NPR – Why is it still ok to ‘trash’ poor white people?
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|'''workhouse'''
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