luffare

luffa +‎ -are

luffare c

1. a tramp, a hobo, a vagrant, a vagabond (itinerant, usually unemployed person)
   • 1981, “Luffarvisan [The tramp song]”, Astrid Lindgren (lyrics), Gösta Linderholm (music), performed by Allan Edwall, Erik Lindgren:

     Se på luffarn [luffaren] som går här på vägen.
     Se på luffarn [luffaren], Guds lille fyr.
     Så snart som det blir vår
     går han ut och går
     för att söka sig äventyr.
     
     Han går så långt som vägarna räcker.
     Han har en oro och längtan i sitt blod.
     Och när som sola skin [solen skiner]
     då far vanvett i'n ["i han" – see the usage notes for honom].
     Det är det som ger honom hans mod.
     
     Han vill va [vara] fri som en fågel,
     fri som en fågel.
     Och då är det som
     nånting ropar, "Kom!",
     i hans galna luffareblod.
     
     Han vill va [vara] fri som en fågel,
     fri som en fågel.
     Och då är det som
     nånting ropar, "Kom!",
     i hans galna luffareblod.
     
     Se på luffarn [luffaren] som går här på vägen.
     Se på luffarn [luffaren], Guds lille fyr.
     Nog blir han trött ibland
     och då tänker han,
     "Varför söker jag äventyr?"
     
     "Varför måste jag vandra och vandra?
     Det finns så många klokare bestyr.
     Så varför ska jag då
     bara gå och gå?
     Jag kanske vandrar åt helsefyr."
     
     Jag vill va [vara] fri som en fågel,
     fri som en fågel.
     Och då är det som
     nånting ropar, "Kom!",
     i hans galna luffareblod.
     
     Jag vill va [vara] fri som en fågel,
     fri som en fågel.
     Och då är det som
     nånting ropar, "Kom!",
     i mitt galna luffareblod.

     Look at the tramp walking here on the road.
     Look at the tramp, God's little chap.
     As soon as spring arrives [as soon as it becomes spring]
     he goes out and walks
     to seek [himself] adventure.
     
     He walks as far as the roads reach.
     He has an anxiousness and longing in his blood.
     And whenever the sun shines,
     madness grips him [then goes madness in him].
     That is what gives him his courage.
     
     He wants to be free as a bird,
     free as a bird.
     And then it is as if
     something calls, "Come!",
     in his crazy tramp blood.
     
     He wants to be free as a bird,
     free as a bird.
     And then it is as if
     something calls, "Come!",
     in his crazy tramp blood.
     
     Look at the tramp walking here on the road.
     Look at the tramp, God's little chap.
     Certainly, he gets tired sometimes,
     and then he thinks,
     "Why do I seek adventure?"
     
     "Why do I have to wander and wander?
     There are so many wiser things to do ["wiser occupations," in a non-job sense].
     So why should I then
     just walk and walk?
     I might be wandering to tarnation."
     
     I want to be free as a bird,
     free as a bird.
     And then it is as if
     something calls, "Come!",
     in his crazy tramp blood.
     
     I want to be free as a bird,
     free as a bird.
     And then it is as if
     something calls, "Come!",
     in my crazy tramp blood.

2. (in compounds) a traveler with several journeys on the same type of transportation (sometimes picking destinations as they go)

   tågluffare ― person who travels long distances by hopping off and on trains

   båtluffare ― person who travels from island to island with different boats in an archipelago

3. (slang, derogatory, figuratively) (an invective against) a person somehow reminiscent of a tramp (by being poorly dressed or dirty or having low status or the like), a bum

Especially of older conditions in (sense 1), similar to tramp in English. Sometimes romanticized, notably in Astrid Lindgren's "Rasmus and the Vagabond" (Rasmus på luffen).

• (1.): luffarschack, pissluffare, på luffen (“journeying long distances on foot without a destination (of or similar to a luffare)”)
• (2.): tågluffare, båtluffare

• luffa
• luff

• vagabond

• luffare in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• luffare in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• luffare in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)