![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl%252C_1854-56.jpg/640px-John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl%252C_1854-56.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Vagrancy
Condition of homelessness without regular employment or income / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants[lower-alpha 1] 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.
![]() | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Europe and the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (November 2022) |
"Vagrant" and "Vagabond" redirect here. For vagrant organisms, see Vagrancy (biology). For other uses, see Vagrant (disambiguation) and Vagabond (disambiguation).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl%2C_1854-56.jpg/640px-John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl%2C_1854-56.jpg)
Both vagrant and vagabond ultimately derive from the Latin word vagari, meaning "to wander". The term vagabond is derived from Latin vagabundus. In Middle English, vagabond originally denoted a person without a home or employment.[2]