/ (ˈpaɪkɪ) / noun British slang, derogatory. a gypsy or vagrant.
Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Romani ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode.
The first pikers were migrants to California, around the time of the 1849 Gold Rush, from Pike County, Missouri. (The county was named after Zebulon Pike, the soldier and explorer who also gave his name to Pikes Peak in Colorado.) This version of the term came to mean a worthless, lazy, good-for-nothing person.
In the UK, it is common in data collections to differentiate between: Gypsies (including English Gypsies, Scottish Gypsies or Travellers, Welsh Gypsies and other Romany people) Irish Travellers (who have specific Irish roots) Roma, understood to be more recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
TODAY, over 25,000 Romani Gypsies secretly live and work in Australia. They have been here since the arrival of the First Fleet but do not reveal their ethnic identity to outsiders, due to fears of being stereotyped.
Irish Travellers are sometimes mistakenly called gypsies. They have no genetic relation with the Roma people. In Ireland Travellers were also commonly known as tinkers, derived from the sound their tools made hitting metal when many Travellers worked as tinsmiths.
This includes Romany Gypsies, who today are generally of English or Welsh heritage. Gypsies first arrived in Britain in the 16th Century. The term 'Gypsy' was coined due to a common misconception that Gypsies originated from Egypt.
They used to live mostly in caravans or mobile homes in which they travelled all over the country or into England. They have Irish surnames – Ward, Connors, Carty, O'Brien, Cash, Coffey, Furey, MacDonagh, Mohan.
The RTFHS website includes lists of surnames that frequently occur in the Gypsy and Traveller community. Gypsy surnames which occur in Surrey include Cooper, Matthews, Ayres, Smith, Green, Taylor, Williams, Brazil, Shepherd, Beaney, Chapman and Scott among others.
Romani is the only Indio-Aryan language that has been spoken exclusively in Europe since the Middle Ages and whose vocabulary and grammar are related to Sanskrit. The language used by Romani people is a source of great pride, facilitating the connectivity and communication between people across the world.
Most Eastern European Roma are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Muslim. Those in Western Europe and the United States are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant. In southern Spain, many Roma are Pentecostal, but this is a small minority that has emerged in contemporary times.
O'Sullivan (ó Súilleabháin)
O'Sullivan has to be the most Irish name ever. Also known as simply Sullivan, is an Irish Gaelic clan-based most prominently in what is today County Cork and County Kerry.
You may have Romani, Traveller or Gypsy ancestry if your family tree includes common Romani or Gypsy surnames such as Boss, Boswell, Buckland, Chilcott, Codona, Cooper, Doe, Lee, Gray (or Grey), Harrison, Hearn, Heron, Hodgkins, Holland, Lee, Lovell, Loveridge, Scamp, Smith, Wood and Young.
Irish Travellers refer to themselves as Pavees, Minkiers or in Irish 'an lucht siúil' meaning 'the walking people'.
Yet the dedication to cleaning – born during nomadic days when keeping wagons clear from dust and dirt on the road was a tough undertaking for traveller women – remains important. As a result, cleaning is a process that takes priority over everything else – including school.
Although they are dispersed, their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially central, eastern and southern Europe (notably southern France), as well as western Asia (mainly Turkey).
Irish ancestry
They found that Travellers are of Irish ancestral origin but have significant differences in their genetic make-up compared with the settled community. These differences have arisen because of hundreds of years of isolation combined with a decreasing Traveller population, the researchers say.
Gypsy Roma Travellers are not currently recognised as indigenous, but could be. These communities have distinct cultural practices and experience colonisation. These communities have higher mortality, morbidity and infant mortality.
Romani people began arriving here from Europe with the First Fleet, and among their number was the colony's first brewer, James Squire. Much later, some families became central to Australia's travelling show circuit, operating boxing tents, and fortune telling; until the tents were made illegal in the mid-20th Century.
Some of the better known areas of work that Gypsies and Travellers are involved in include seasonal agricultural work, motor trading and tree-felling. Some are employed as academics, teachers and public servants and in this way they add to the local economy.
The short answer to the question “Why Do Irish Travellers Dress Provocatively is: Irish Travellers dress provocatively due to cultural traditions and the desire to attract potential mates within their community, reflecting their unique customs and values.
Genetic analysis has shown Travellers to be of Irish extraction, and that they likely diverged from the settled Irish population in the 1600s, likely during the time of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Centuries of cultural isolation have led Travellers to become genetically distinct from the settled Irish.
Gypsy genetic traits
Common traits include dark eyes, olive skin, and high cheekbones. They also tend to have a relatively small stature and black or very dark hair. Genetic research suggests that the Romani people are descended from an ancient Indian population known as the Dravidians.
Pikey is actually a word discribing non-Gypsy (as in non-Romani) travellers. Romani gypsies have called non-Romani travellers as pikies for years. "Often they would often say they're not gypsy they're pikies" when refering to non-Romani travellers of the UK.