Picture someone down from a train in a town where nobody knows them, holding one cheap bag sewn from carpet cloth. Everything they own is inside it. They did not come to settle, plant anything or stay. They came because this place has something to give out, and the bag is light enough to carry away again the moment it stops giving. Every use of the word keeps that in view: no roots here, and one hand already on the handle.
The word is built from carpetbag plus -er, the ending for a person who does something. A carpetbag was a cheap travelling bag made of carpet fabric, and the source notes that many of these arrivals carried their belongings in one.
這個字由 carpetbag 加上 -er 組成，-er 指做這件事的人。carpetbag 是一種用地毯布做的便宜旅行袋。來源說明指出，當年這些外來者常常就用這種袋子裝全部家當。所以字面上它說的是「提著地毯布袋的人」，那只袋子也就成了整個字的畫面。
Wiktionary entry for carpetbagger, packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1114529734:6594 — from carpetbag + -er, because many carried their belongings in cheap luggage made from carpet fabric.
Three branches
戰後南下的外來者（字的起點）
這一支就是那個畫面本身，發生在真實的歷史裡：南北戰爭之後，北方人帶著布袋南下。
noun · C2
In American history, a person from the northern states who went to the southern states after the Civil War of 1861 to 1865, to make money or win political power there, in a way southerners saw as greedy or dishonest.
南下投機客
沒有淵源卻來拿好處的人
把畫面裡的「南方」拿掉，只留下兩個條件：跟這裡沒有淵源，來是為了自己。剩下的部分就可以套到任何地方。
noun · C2
Someone who comes into a place, a company or a group that they have no earlier connection with, only to get something for themselves out of it, usually money or power.
外來撈好處的人
為了那天的分紅才開戶的人（英式）
還是同一個畫面，只是地點換成一家英國的互助儲貸機構：帶著空袋子站進門，等著分東西的那天。
noun · C2
In British use, a person who opens an account with a building society because they expect it to turn into a bank soon, so that account holders will be handed cash or shares.
搶分紅的開戶人