A pejorative term for a
person, containing multiple negative implications and associations.
Implications include:
1. Low-class economically and/or socially (similar to calling someone a rube)
2. Unreliable and likely to back-out of an intent to buy or hire (comparable to calling someone a "tire kicker")
3. Dishonest, especially in matters of business or
money
4. A vagrant or wanderer
5. A person from the
New-Jersey Turnpike area
6. Cheap and miserly (due to the presence of tolls on the New-Jersey Turnpike)
The term derives from both the British slang "Pikey" (a derisive term for Gypsies), as well as the more modern
American associations with the New-Jersey Turnpike area.