vagabond | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

23 entries found.

early 15c. (earlier vacabond, c. 1400), from Old French vagabond, vacabond "wandering, unsteady" (14c.), from Late Latin vagabundus "wandering, strolling about," from Latin vagari "wander" (from vagus "wandering, undecided;" see vague) + gerundive suffix -bundus.

vagabond (n.)

c. 1400, earlier wagabund (in a criminal indictment from 1311); see vagabond (adj.). Despite the earliest use, in Middle English often merely "one who is without a settled home, a vagrant" but not necessarily in a bad sense. Notion of "idle, disreputable person" predominated from 17c.

truant (n.)

c. 1200, "beggar, vagabond," from Old French truant "beggar, rogue" (12c.), as an adjective, "wretched, miserable, of low caste," from Gaulish *trougant- (compare Breton *truan, later truant "vagabond," Welsh truan "wretch," Gaelic truaghan "wretched"), of uncertain origin. Compare Spanish truhan "buffoon," from same source. Meaning "one who wanders from an appointed place," especially "a child who stays away from school without leave" is first attested mid-15c.

palliard (n.)

late 15c., "vagabond or beggar" (who sleeps on straw in barns), from French paillard, from Old French paillart "tramp, beggar, vagabond, dissolute person" (13c.), from paille "straw" (see pallet (n.1); also see -ard). Related: Palliardry. Palliardize was 17c. English for "to fornicate."

striker (n.)

late 14c., "vagabond," agent noun from strike (v.). From mid-15c. as "coiner;" 1580s as "fighter;" 1850 as "worker on strike;" 1963 as a soccer position.

tatterdemalion (n.)

"ragged child, person dressed in old clothes," c. 1600, probably from tatter (n.), with fantastic second element, but perhaps also suggested by Tartar, with a contemporary sense of "vagabond, gypsy."

raver (n.)

c. 1400, ravere, "madman, maniac," agent noun from rave (v.). Meaning "attendee at a mass party" is from 1991. In Old French, the noun resveor meant "vagabond, night-prowler."

stroll (v.)

c. 1600, a cant word introduced from the Continent, probably from dialectal German strollen, variant of Swiss German strolchen "to stroll about, loaf," from Strolch "vagabond, vagrant," also "fortuneteller," perhaps from Italian astrologo "astrologer." Related: Strolled; strolling.

runabout (n.)

1540s, in reference to persons, "a vagabond, a tramp," from the verbal phrase; see run (v.) + about (adv.). From 1890 as a small, light type of carriage; later extended to automobiles, light aircraft, small boats.

schnorrer (n.)

"a scrounger, a vagabond," 1892 (Zangwill), originally "a Jewish beggar," from Yiddish, "beggar," from German slang schnurrer, from schnurren "to go begging" (slang), which is perhaps ultimately imitative of the sound of pleading or whining (compare sneer, snorkel, snarl).

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