A person without a permanent home who travels from place to place, or the sound of heavy footsteps; also a steamship that transports cargo without a fixed route.
From Middle Low German tramp, possibly imitating the sound of heavy footsteps. The word has meant both the sound and the person since around the 16th century, and later was applied to ships without regular routes.
The Great Depression created over 250,000 American 'tramps' who rode freight trains across the country—they even had their own secret code system marked with chalk on walls to warn or help other hobos, a real underground communication network.
Applied asymmetrically to women as sexual slur; rarely applied with same venom to men. Conflates homelessness and sexual judgment in gendered way.
Avoid as character judgment of any person. Use 'homeless person' for housing status, or name specific objectionable behavior without appearance/morality shortcuts.
["homeless person","wanderer","vagrant"]
Women experiencing homelessness face compounded stigma from this term's sexual connotation; men do not face equivalent judgment.
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