guttersnipe:
(plural: ‘guttersnipes‘; pronunciation: the letter ‘g’ in ‘gutter’ rhymes with ‘g’ in “garden” and letter ‘u’ rhymes with ‘u’ in “but”; and the letters ‘ip’ in ‘snipe’ rhyme with ‘ip’ in “ripe” — ‘gutter…snipe’ — for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
a poor badly-behaved child from the poorest part of a town, living in the worst conditions, and usually, dressed in dirty torn clothes;
a street urchin;
a street Arab {not to be used in formal situations},
Guttersnipes in London streets
Experts on word origins say that ‘guttersnipe’ was first used for a bird and then to a poor person who collects garbage and other refuse from the town’s street gutters.
The story of the famous 1970’s film ‘My Fair Lady’ is about an English language expert picking up a female grown-up guttersnipe from a slum area and training her to talk and behave like a lady.
There are incidents where, by some strange turn of events, guttersnipes have become CEO’s of mega companies and some people from affluent parts of the society have become guttersnipes!
