Since we looked at the word hobo last week, it only seems appropriate to now tackle guttersnipe, which Merriam-Webster defines as "a homeless vagabond and especially an outcast boy or girl in the streets of a city." M-W adds that it can also mean "a person of the lowest moral or economic station" and noted that Mark Twain apparently was among the first to use guttersnipe to mean a hoodlum or young street urchin.
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Oddly enough, Americanisms, Old and New by John Stephen Farmer (c. 1889) defines guttersnipes as "a recent Wall Street name for 'outside brokers.'"
Well now, that's intriguing! How did we get from brokers to homeless vagabonds, or maybe it was vice-versa? Let's see if we can find a little more information about this fascinating word, and maybe even an indication of first use.
The Online Etymology Dictionary (OED) is often a good place to start, and yet again, it doesn't let me down! According to the OED, guttersnipe first appeared in 1857 as Wall street slang for "streetcorner broker." By 1869, it had come to also mean street urchin as well as "one who gathers rags and paper from gutters." OED continues, "As a name for the common snipe, it dates from 1874 but is perhaps earlier."
The same OED page dives into the etymology of gutter and snipe. Snipe appeared in early 14th century or thereabouts, as a word for a "long-billed marsh bird." By about 1600, however, it has become an "opprobrious term."
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| Guttersnipe seems a harsh label for these unfortunate children. "Nomads of the Street,"Street children in their sleeping quarters, New York By Jacob Riis (1849-1914), Public Domain, Link |
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