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Glite Dictionary
street arab

street arab

9.9
An offensive name for a homeless child, often a boy, who lives on the streets
  • noun
  • Slur
translation icon : [término despectivo para niño vagabundo]
  • Seated beside him is the model Suzi Tarbe, perfectly cast as a gamine, a street-arab, a homeless outcast.

Examples

  • After being abandoned, he became a street arab, wandering the alleys in search of a safe place to sleep.

  • Because my little street arab holds hers.

    Inside Daisy Clover (1966)

  • The documentary followed a young street arab as he struggled to find food and shelter each day.

  • In the city center, a street arab begged for change, sharing his story of hardship and survival.

Synonyms

homeless person
vsstreet arab
76 2.3

A person who has no home and often lives on the streets

is restricted to children and often implies abandonment rather than adult homelessness
street person
vsstreet arab
11 5.6

A person without a home who sleeps outdoors or in public places

is child specific and highlights lack of adult care or shelter
street urchin
vsstreet arab
  • Archaic
5 7.6

A poor child who spends most of their time on the streets

focuses on poverty and presence rather than abandonment or lack of shelter
street child
vsstreet arab
3 4.4

A child who lives or works on the streets without adult care

is more likely to mean boys and to sound offensive
gamin
vsstreet arab
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A homeless boy who lives on the streets, often used as a rude word

applies to homeless children of any gender rather than only boys

Surface Forms

street arab singular
street arabs plural

Morphology

street + Arab

The phrase combines the literal elements 'street' (location/area) and 'Arab' (an ethnic label), but the attested meaning 'a homeless child, often used pejoratively' cannot be derived from those constituent meanings. A B1 learner would more likely infer 'an Arab person who is on the street' rather than the historical, idiomatic, and offensive sense referring specifically to street children, so the meaning is unpredictable from the parts.

Etymology

The noun street arab comes from a long-ago image of children who wandered the street like nomads, and people used arab to mean a wanderer. So street arab came to mean a 'homeless child' who lives or roams the streets, and the term is now sometimes seen as offensive.