From Late Middle English vagraunt (“person without proper employment; person without a fixed abode, tramp, vagabond”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) [and other forms] and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”) [and other forms], perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, stroll about; to roam, rove, wander”). Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer (“to wander, wander about as a vagabond”) [and other forms], from Frankish *walkrōn (“to wander about”), the frequentative form of *walkōn (“to walk; to wander; to stomp, trample; to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing)”), from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about, wallow; to full”), *walkaną (“to turn, wind; to toss; to roll, roll about; to wend; to walk; to wander; to trample; to full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg- (“to turn, twist; to move”), ultimately from *welH- (“to turn; to wind”). The English word is cognate with Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Middle Dutch walken (“to knead; to full”), Old English wealcan (“to roll”), ġewealcan (“to go; to walk about”), Old High German walchan, walkan (“to move up and down; to press together; to full; to walk; to wander”), Old Norse valka (“to wander”). See further at walk.

itinerant • rover • ambler • flaneur • gadling • nomad • peregrinator • rambler • saunterer • straggler • stroller • vagrant • walke-street • wanderer • drifter • hobo • bum • stiff • casual • clochard • derelict • dero • down-and-out • down-and-outer • epithite • floater • Jack out of doors • knight of the road • landleaper • landloper • landlouper • paker • palliard • pike • piker • ranger • rogue • rolling stone • rough sleeper • scatterling • skelder • skell • stumblebum • swagman • swaggie • toerag • tramp • truant • vagabond • waif • yagger • bagman • derro • dosser • inconstant • king of the road • nomadic • peripatetic • sundowner