In hobo slang, a young or inexperienced hobo, or a person who occasionally travels with hobos but isn't a full-time vagrant.
From early 20th-century American hobo and railroad worker slang, likely combining 'gay' (meaning carefree or lighthearted) with 'cat' (a person). The 'gay' here predates modern sexual orientation usage.
This word captures a specific moment in American history—the era of railroad hobos and migrant workers in the early 1900s had a rich coded language for different types of travelers. A 'gay cat' was someone doing it for the adventure, not out of desperate necessity.
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