# How did the word TRAMP come to mean an insult? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291 "2012-10-19T23:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291/21 "2012-10-21T16:05:51Z")
As so often, sam, we’re talking past one another because you’re looking for the absolute first use and I’m looking at when the use became popularly used. An [ngrams search from 1870-1905](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tramp%2Chobo%2Cbum&year_start=1870&year_end=1905&corpus=0&smoothing=0&share=) shows what I mean. Hobo has almost no uses before 1905. Almost no is not the same as none, and that article is surely a fascinating find. From its tone, hobo is so established you may have to go back many years for a first use. For people not familiar with the Google Books database: don’t bother clicking on that 1870-1871 link and expect to find an early use of hobo. Periodicals are dated by the first issue in the run, so the first link takes you to a magazine article from 1896. The second link is in Swahili. And so forth. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291/22 "2012-10-21T19:24:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > As so often, sam, we’re talking past one another because you’re looking for the absolute first use and I’m looking at when the use became popularly used. > > An [ngrams search from 1870-1905](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tramp%2Chobo%2Cbum&year_start=1870&year_end=1905&corpus=0&smoothing=0&share=) shows what I mean. Hobo has almost no uses before 1905. Almost no is not the same as none, and that article is surely a fascinating find. From its tone, hobo is so established you may have to go back many years for a first use. > > For people not familiar with the Google Books database: don’t bother clicking on that 1870-1871 link and expect to find an early use of hobo. Periodicals are dated by the first issue in the run, so the first link takes you to a magazine article from 1896. The second link is in Swahili. And so forth. You’re correct about talking past each other-----we’ve done this before. 🙂 That 1885 cite is almost certainly the first print cite. I seriously doubt we’ll ever find one much earlier. Perhaps a year or so. What queers searches in newspaper databases is that “Hoboken” shows up as hits in searches for “hobo.” But. there are many real uses of the term “hobo” to mean a tramp/bum in newpapers before 1900. I don’t think it’s as limited as you might suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291/23 "2012-10-21T20:17:34Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Tramp makes a sudden jump in 2006, so that’s probably when tramp stamp became popular. Before that, “tramp stamps” was a synonym for “food stamps”. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291/24 "2012-10-22T13:48:47Z")
> [@listedmia](#): > > “Tramp” meaning a vagabond is still occasionally used in the US by, well, the tramps themselves. Traditionally, a hobo is someone who rides freight, moves from place to place and works seasonally; a tramp moves around and doesn’t work; and a bum is a homeless person who stays in one place. This definition is found in sources like “The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha”, the story of a woman hobo from the early 20th century. There’s also “rubbertramps” who own cars, and “leathertramps” who walk around and hitchhike. There’s a pretty big travelling subculture which I’ve been a part of on and off for a few years. The definition I read was, “A bum sits and loafs; a tramp stands and loafs. But a hobo moves and works.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-tramp-come-to-mean-an-insult/638291.md?page=1)