vagrant

Meanings

Noun

• A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
• A person without settled employment or habitation who supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
• Vagrans egista (species), a widely distributed Asian butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
• An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.

Adjective

• Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
• Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
• Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.

Origin

• From Late Middle English vagraunt, probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant and Old French walcrant, waucrant, perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor. Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer, from Frankish *walkrōn, the frequentative form of *walkōn, from Proto-Germanic *walkōną, *walkaną,
• from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg-, ultimately from *welH-.
• The English word is cognate with Latin valgus, Middle Dutch walken, Old English wealcan, ġewealcan, Old High German walchan, walkan, Old Norse valka. See further at walk.
• From Middle English vagraunt, vagaraunt, from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant and Old French walcrant, waucrant; see further at etymology 1.