Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to pull someone up on the use of the word 'pikey'?

49 replies

BasinHaircut · 08/12/2015 16:20

Its just as bad as the other 'p' word isnt it? Completely xenophobic.

Especially when the justification of it is that 'they dont pay council tax' or 'just look at the state of the local greenspace after the fair has been to town'.

The person who I have pulled up reckons that its OK because 'the dictionary says its just a word to describe Gypsies and Travellers'. I have no words for that.

This is from a person that has been sharing multiple posts and making comments comdenming people who 'blame all Muslims for Isis'.

Apparently thats not the same becuase some 'pikey's' once ripped off thier grandparents so of course they are 100% in the right.

Idiot.

OP posts:
Wolfiefan · 08/12/2015 16:22

Completely unacceptable term. I worked in a secondary school and the teachers referred to the yucky kit they loaned out to kids who forgot theirs as gyp kit. It was aged before I worked out what it was short for and was like WTF you can't call it that.

Skippedthelightfandango · 08/12/2015 16:23

Dunno if it is a regional thing but I had never heard the word until I came to the midlands from up north, and certainly it was explained to me as a derogatory word,

I agree you should pull them up on it.

Enjolrass · 08/12/2015 16:24

My mum and dad were robbed by travellers. It's still not ok to us that word. Yanbu

Although the only time I have heard it said in RL, in the last 10 years, was by the travellers who live further up the road, to describe other travellers.

Owllady · 08/12/2015 16:25

Pikey is a pejorative term.

Memeto3boys · 08/12/2015 16:32

I agree it shouldn't be used.
I also think the gypsies should refer to non gypsies people as gorjas.

Original poster
BasinHaircut · 08/12/2015 16:35

I did pull them up, not that it did much good. They are the sort of person who defines right or wrong with exactly how it fits on their moral compass and if they think they will get people agreeing with them to massage their ego.

It's not just my disgust at the word either I guess, but the fact that to call one set of people 'parasites' but apparently be so 'right on' about another is just so hypocritical that it makes my teeth itch

OP posts:
Memeto3boys · 08/12/2015 16:41

Ment to say shouldn't not should

shrunkenhead · 09/12/2015 15:57

I hadn't heard it before and have no idea of its origins....The only pikes I know are a type of fish and know when people are tired they sometimes say "Ooh I'm piked" before collapsing into a chair.

CuppaSarah · 09/12/2015 16:11

I thought a pikey meant someone who was poor and a bit rough around the edges. Still not a nice term at all, but I had no idea it referred to travellers.

Either way it's a horrible thing to say about someone, so makes no odds to me as I wont say it.

frillybiscuits · 09/12/2015 16:14

I remember in school a teacher overheard one of my classmates casually using the word in a conversation and he got a detention for 'racism'. I agree it can be taken badly if used as an insult but it's surely not racismHmm

Sparklycat · 09/12/2015 16:17

Pikey is taken to mean chav around here

frillybiscuits · 09/12/2015 16:18

'From the English "turnpike", the place where itinerent travellers and thieves would camp near a settlement.'

Brewdolph · 09/12/2015 16:23

A friend worked in the prison service, she once called an inmate a pikey, she was suspended and in a whole heap of shit.

She couldn't see it as an offencive word even after her disciplinary.

Some people cannot be taught.

Brewdolph · 09/12/2015 16:24

Offensive obviously

Cutecat78 · 09/12/2015 16:24

It means Traveller here.

I live in and work in schools in an area which has a high percentage of Gypsy Travellers (it is fine to call them that I have asked).

If you called anyone a "Pikey" around these parts you would be likely to get your head panned in.

Mypubesarestraight · 09/12/2015 16:53

Pikey is a thief where I'm from Confused

TinklyLittleLaugh · 09/12/2015 16:59

My DS was called a pikey by the posh boys at his Uni. We are not travellers so I suppose they just meant poor or chavvy, (although we are neither of those either).

I actually thought DS should have complained to someone, as it is such a hateful word, (it was also texted to him, so he had hard evidence) but DS thought I was overreacting.

EvaBING · 09/12/2015 17:04

I was told by an English guy (I'm Irish), that it was a term referring to anyone Irish? I have to say, having never lived in England at that point, that I found it quite a baffling connotation!

EvaBING · 09/12/2015 17:06

Have just asked (Irish) DP and he has said that it is used to refer to Irish travellers.

Quite a bizarre word really!

Imustgodowntotheseaagain · 09/12/2015 17:09

Definitely unacceptable these days, though Jeremy Clarkson got away with using it on Top Gear.

Picnic2223 · 09/12/2015 17:21

Irrelevant but OP what is the ' other ' P word?

Owllady · 09/12/2015 17:21

The origins of the word are quite clear, it doesn't matter what it means where you cone from, though all the connotations are derogatory and negative anyway, as well

BadLad · 09/12/2015 17:25

Irrelevant but OP what is the ' other ' P word?

I assume it's "Paki" to refer to people from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries in that region.

NeedAScarfForMyGiraffe · 09/12/2015 17:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bumpertobumper · 09/12/2015 20:42

When you say "it means chav here" please realise that it is being interpreted as synonymous with chav as it is also being used as a pejorative term for someone seen as poor and low class, possibly a petty criminal. But no matter how you feel it is being used in your area, please take note that due to its origins and most widely recognised definition it's a racist hateful word which shouldn't be used. And in answer to pp, yes it is racist because it refers negatively to a particular ethnic group.

Swipe left for the next trending thread