- 1流浪漢、無業遊民（帶有官方、輕蔑的舊式語感，現代中性說法是 homeless person 街友）；當形容詞時是「漂泊的、四處遊走的」
A vagrant is a person with no home and no job, who moves from place to place and often has to beg for money or food. The word is old and it carries a cold, official tone — it is the word a policeman, a judge or a nineteenth-century newspaper would use. Under it sits a quiet judgement: that this person is not just unlucky but somehow a nuisance, someone who ought to move along. That is why careful speakers today say 'homeless person' instead, and why you will notice 'vagrant' mostly in old novels, court records and history.
There is also an adjective 'vagrant', meaning wandering, with no fixed direction — and here the feeling changes completely. 'A vagrant breeze', 'vagrant thoughts': in writing, this use is gentle, even pretty. Same word, two very different temperatures, and which one you get depends entirely on whether it is describing a person or a thing. Bird-watchers have a third use of their own: a 'vagrant' bird is one that has been blown far off its normal route and turns up somewhere it should not be.
組成From Middle English vagraunt, probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant / waucrant and Old French walcrant, waucrant meaning 'roaming, wandering' — the present participle of a verb meaning 'to wander about'. That came from Frankish. The form was probably also pushed along by Latin vagārī, 'to roam, to wander'.
同家族的字
- vagrancythe state of being a vagrant, built from this word
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
vagrantnoun詞源 1/ˈveɪɡɹənt/
- 1
datedA person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
- 2
A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
- Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighbourhood begging for food.
- If it appear to the Juſtice by the confeſſion of the Vagrant, or by the Oath of one Witneſs, that he had no lawful Settlement ſince his Birth, and that he hath committed Acts of Vagrancy, or hath been a common Beggar, or Vagrant, for two Years laſt paſt, [...] then inſtead of puniſhing him, the Juſtice, or Juſtices, may bind him Apprentice for ſeven Years to the Perſon who apprehends him, or to any other Perſon who will receive him, and employ him in Great Britain, or in any of his Majeſty's Plantations.
- 3
Any member of the species Vagrans egista of widely distributed Asian butteflies of the family Nymphalidae.
- 4
biologynatural-sciencesornithologyAn animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.
vagrantadj詞源 2/ˈveɪɡɹənt/
- 1
Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
- a vagrant beggar
- [A]ll and every idle, looſe and diſſolute perſon and perſons, which from and after the firſt day of July, One thouſand ſix hundred fifty ſeven, ſhall be found and taken within the Commonwealth of England, vagrant and wandring from his or their uſual place of living or abode, and ſhall not have ſuch good and ſufficient cauſe or buſineſs for ſuch his or their travelling or wandring, [...] ſhall be proceeded againſt and puniſhed as Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggers within the ſaid Statute, [...]
- 2
Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
- 3
Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.
- Let Prudence yet obſtruct thy venturous way; / And take good heed, what men will think and ſay: / That beauteous Emma vagrant courſes took; / Her father's houſe and civil life forſook; / That, full of youthful blood, and fond of man; / She to the wood-land with an exile ran.
- While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。