gamin means A homeless boy; a male street urchin; also (more generally), a cheeky, street-smart boy. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
Why this word is great
GAMIN — [Noun] A homeless or neglected boy who lives on the streets, typically characterized by roguish charm and street-smart resourcefulness. Borrowed from French gamin ("a street urchin, young boy"), a word of obscure origin, possibly from an eastern French dialect; one speculative suggestion links it to the Berrichon dialect word gamer ("to steal"). Unlike an urchin, which connotes mere ragged poverty, or a waif, which evokes helpless abandonment, a gamin is defined by his impudent agency. He is the silhouette darting across rain-slicked cobblestones, the quick fingers liberating a warm roll from a baker's tray, the knowing, unblinking gaze from a shadowed doorway—a creature of the city's seams, surviving less by pity than by wit, and making the heart ache precisely because he has learned not to.
noun
- A homeless boy; a male street urchin; also (more generally), a cheeky, street-smart boy.“Dearest Eloise,— There is one little and perhaps insignificant French cake, which I feel certain would soon become a favourite in the cottage, more particularly amongst its juvenile inhabitants. It is the famed galette, the melodramatic food of the gamins, galopins, mechanics, and semi-artists of France.”