Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, vagrancy was historically a crime punishable with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses.
Both vagrant and vagabond ultimately derive from the Latin word vagari, meaning "to wander". The term vagabond and its archaic equivalent vagabone come from Latin vagabundus ("strolling about"). In Middle English, vagabond originally denoted a person without a home or employment.
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"Arrest This Man," by Art Young.Reward. For information leading to the apprehension of β. Jesus Chri...
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The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808-11). Drawing by Thomas Rowland...
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Alfred Stevens, Ce quβon appelle le vagabondage, 1854
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Medieval illustration of men harvesting wheat with reaping-hooks or sickles, on a calendar page for ...
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A woodcut from circa 1536 depicting a vagrant being punished in the streets in Tudor England.
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John Everett Millais: The Blind Girl, 1856
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Russel-Morgan Print of a Tramp smoking cigar with cane over arm