[MR] Why are mischeivous street children called "urchins"?

[jbrmm266 at aol.com]

Lady Julienne wrote:
 
<[C]hildren are either children or urchins (but this causes offense to some parents, because 'urchin' is technically a child who lives on the street and makes mischief).>
 
Taking it one step farther back, an urchin is literally a hedgehog. 
 
I wonder how it happened that such a term came to apply to those who in French would be called "gamins."  My admittedly brief inquiry into that subject has yielded no result.  (Most of the time, I had to wade through responses on sea urchins, since the literal term is rarely applied to the land animal these days.)
 
Donal
 
 


 
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.