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I know technically a hobo is homeless vagabond.

Is this name also used as some sort of curse word or would one only use that name in exactly that context?

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    I'd say hobo is a pretty dated Americanism these days. Bum or perhaps tramp would be more likely today. Are you sure you haven't misheard homo? Sad to say, that's still quite commonly used as an insult by some speakers in some communities.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 23:23
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    In my experience, "Bum" and "hobo" are primarily US English, whereas "tramp" is primarily UK English. In both, "homeless" is the Standard English.
    – Matt
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 1:25
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    I live in the U.S., and I still hear people say hobo. I agree with FumbleFingers, though, that it's possible you misheard homo. Although it's easy to imagine using hobo as an insult, given that few people hold "homeless vagabonds" in high esteem, I can't recall having heard people using the term like a "curse word".
    – user230
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 3:00
  • Around here (VA, US), "tramp" has another more prominent meaning; it means, basically, a "loose" woman. I hardly ever hear it used to refer to bums.
    – cHao
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 13:55

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I've lived mostly in New York, Ohio and Michigan. I hear "hobo" used only to refer to wandering poor people from perhaps a century ago. It is rarely used to refer to someone living today. Likewise "tramp" is a very old word and rarely-used word for a poor person, as cHao says it is more often used for a loose woman.

A contemporary poor person who does not have a home may be called a "bum" or, if you want to be politically correct, "homeless". I can't think of a commonly used, contemporary word for a traveling homeless person.

I too can't recall ever having heard "hobo" used as a swear word or an insult, though I don't suppose it would be a compliment to call someone a hobo.

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  • Officialdom in the UK refers to travelling homeless people as travellers, but in conversation, many people use pikey/piker or gypo (gypsy). Sometime Romany if they don't want to sound negative, but the truth is most people only approve of travellers when they're camped out somewhere else, not in my backyard.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 16:05
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Your research as to the actual meaning is correct, but the word is slang and somewhat loaded. While "vagabond" has a romantic ring to it, "hobo" implies more of a "dirty, penniless, and homeless", the part about travel being less important, the part about being the pariah of the society, a homeless, being emphasized. So, yes, comparing someone to a hobo may be considered offensive, implying worse than scruffy looks, or particularly bad material stance.

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  • Curiously, my impression is that "hobo" has certain romantic or picturesque connotations. Yes, a wandering poor person, but free and unencumbered. Someone who is "homeless" may be looked down on as a drain on society, or pitied as a victim of terrible misfortune, but a "hobo" may be almost envied as someone who gets to travel the country and has no responsibilities. Alternatively, hobos are sometimes seen as comic figures.
    – Jay
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 14:02
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    @Jay: I frequent some imageboards where the audience is rather young and slang and crude language is the standard. While "Bum" is used nearly exclusively to describe actual bums, "Hobo" seems to dominate when you want to denigrate someone's lifestyle, looks or behavior (although it seems "bum" tends to apply when describing the living place in a state of bad disrepair, "you dress like a hobo", but "you live like a bum".
    – SF.
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 14:16

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