vagrant | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

20 entries found.

mid-15c., "person who lacks regular employment, one without fixed abode, a tramp," probably from Anglo-French vageraunt, also wacrant, walcrant, which is said in many sources to be a noun use of the past participle of Old French walcrer "to wander," from Frankish (Germanic) *walken, from the same source as Old Norse valka "wander" and English walk (v.).

Under this theory the word was influenced by Old French vagant, vagaunt "wandering," from Latin vagantem (nominative vagans), past participle of vagari "to wander, stroll about" (see vagary). But on another theory the Anglo-French word ultimately is from Old French vagant, with an unetymological -r-. Middle English also had vagaunt "wandering, without fixed abode" (late 14c.), from Old French vagant.

vagrant (adj.)

early 15c., from Anglo-French vagarant, waucrant, and sharing with it the history to be found under vagrant (n.). Dogberry's corruption vagrom ("Much Ado about Nothing") persisted through 19c. in learned jocularity.

vagrancy (n.)

"life of idle begging," 1706, from vagrant + abstract noun suffix -cy. Earlier in a figurative sense, "mental wandering" (1640s). By late 18c. used in law as a catch-all for miscellaneous petty offenses against public order.

arrant (adj.)

late 14c., variant of errant (q.v.); at first merely derogatory, "wandering, vagrant;" then (16c.) gradually losing its opprobrious force and acquiring a meaning "thoroughgoing, downright, notorious."

roguery (n.)

1590s, "behavior or practices characteristic of rogues; the life of a vagrant," from rogue (n.) + -ery. From 1610s as "knavish tricks, dishonest practices, rascally acts."

randy (adj.)

1690s, "aggressive, boisterous," a Scottish word of uncertain origin, probably from rand "to rave," an obsolete variant of rant (v.). "In early use always of beggars, and probably implying vagrant habits as well as rude behavior. Now applied only to women" [OED]. The sense of "lewd, lustful, noisily wanton" is attested by 1847. Compare Scottish and northern English randy (n.) "a sturdy beggar or vagrant" (of males); "a noisy hoyden, a rude, romping girl." Related: Randiness.

erroneous (adj.)

late 14c., from Old French erroneus and directly from Latin erroneus "vagrant, wandering" (in Late Latin "erroneous"), from erronem (nominative erro) "a wanderer, vagabond," from past participle stem of errare "to wander; to err" (see err). Related: Erroneously.

piker (n.)

1872, "miserly person," formerly "poor white migrant to California" (1860), earlier Pike (1854), perhaps originally "vagrant who wanders the pike (n.4)" (which is the notion in Sussex dialectal piker "vagrant, tramp, gypsy," 1838), but Barnhart, OED and others suggest the American English word ultimately is a reference to people from Pike County, Missouri. Its appearance seems too late to connect it with Middle English piker "robber, petty thief" (c. 1300, attested as late as 1549 in OED), from the source of pick (v.) in its sense of "steal, rob, plunder" (early 14c.) with its former long vowel.

bribe (n.)

late 14c., "thing stolen," from Old French bribe "a gift," properly "bit, piece, hunk; morsel of bread given to beggars" (14c., compare Old French bribeor "vagrant, beggar"), from briber, brimber "to beg," a general Romanic word (compare Spanish briba "vagrancy," Italian birbone "a vagrant"); Gamillscheg marks the French word as Rotwelsch, i.e. thieves' jargon. The whole group is of uncertain origin; old sources suggest it could be Celtic (compare Breton breva, Welsh briwo "to break") and akin to break (v.). Shift of meaning to "gift given to influence corruptly" is by mid-15c.

landlubber (n.)

also land-lubber, "A useless long-shorer; a vagrant stroller. Applied by sailors to the mass of landsmen, especially those without employment" [W.H. Smyth, "The Sailor's Word-book"], c. 1700, from land (n.) + lubber (q.v.).

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