Why this word is great
SPALPEEN — [Noun] A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person; also, a good-for-nothing. From Irish spailpín ("seasonal laborer, rascal"), diminutive of spailp ("conceited fellow, pride, bragging"). Unlike culchie (which merely marks a rural Irishman) or rogue (which lacks the cultural grit of Irish labor), spalpeen carries the whiff of peat smoke and desperation—the sly grin of a man who knows the price of potatoes and the weight of a landlord’s boot. It is the glint in the eye of a boy swapping stones for turnips at market, the shuffle of a man moving from one hungry harvest to the next, the way a story grows taller with each telling when there’s nothing left but words. Survival, after all, is its own kind of mischief.