wanderer

From Middle English wanderere, wandrere, wanderare, equivalent to wander +‎ -er. Cognate with Scots wanderer, wandirer (“wanderer”), Dutch wandelaar (“walker, hiker”), German Wanderer (“wanderer”), Danish vandrer (“wanderer”), Swedish vandrare (“wanderer”), Norwegian vandrer (“wanderer”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑndəɹɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒndəɹə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

wanderer (plural wanderers)

1. One who wanders, who travels aimlessly.
   • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:

     The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.

2. Any of various far-migrating nymphalid butterflies of the genus Danaus.
3. (colloquial) The wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans.

• See Thesaurus:vagabond

• nerdwear, warrened