vagrant

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈveɪɡrənt/ UK /ˈveɪɡrənt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place

The vagrant slept beneath the bridge, clutching a tattered blanket against the cold.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person without a settled... wanderer vagabond drifter tramp itinerant nomad wayfarer

Opposites

resident settler

Word family

Forms vagrancy

Derived forms vagrancy

Related forms vagabond vagary vague vagile

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman vagarant ('wandering'), perhaps from Old French walcrer ('to wander'), later associated with Latin vagārī ('to wander'), from vagus ('roving').

vagarant Anglo-Norman vagārī Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# vagrant

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈveɪɡrənt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈveɪɡrənt/

## Meanings
1. a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place

## Examples
- The vagrant slept beneath the bridge, clutching a tattered blanket against the cold.

## Synonyms
- wanderer
- vagabond
- drifter
- tramp
- itinerant
- nomad
- wayfarer

## Antonyms
- resident
- settler

## Derived Forms
- vagrancy

## Related Forms
- vagabond
- vagary
- vague
- vagile

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: vagarant
- Root: vagārī

## Etymology
From Anglo-Norman vagarant ('wandering'), perhaps from Old French walcrer ('to wander'), later associated with Latin vagārī ('to wander'), from vagus ('roving').

## AI Etymology
Vagrant comes from Anglo-Norman vagarant ('wandering'), perhaps from Old French walcrer ('to wander'), later associated with Latin vagārī ('to wander'), from vagus ('roving'). The historical chain includes Anglo-Norman vagarant and Latin vagārī. The quoted older senses, "wandering", "to wander", and "roving", supply the semantic anchors for vagrant. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word vagrant carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place". English derivatives include vagrancy; related English forms include vagabond, vagary, vague, and vagile. The result is a noun and adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

markdown