† vacabond Obs.
Forms: α. 5–6 vacabound(e, 5 wayka-). β. 5–6 vacabund(e. γ. 5–6 vacabond(e, 6 vaco-, vaka-). δ. 6 vacabo(u)n, wacabone.
[a. OF. vacabonde (vacquabonde, vaccabon), app. an alteration of vagabond(e vagabond under the influence of L. vacāre (F. vaquer) to be unoccupied or idle.
The form survives in northern F. dialects, and in the 17th century Chifflet gives vacabond as the pron. of vagabond (Littré). In Anglo-L. of the 15–16th cent. vacabundus occurs in place of vagabundus.]
1. A person having no settled means of living or no fixed home; a vagabond.
| α 1404 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 37 Al men of the forsaede shirs exepte fowre or five gentilmen & a fewe vacaboundis, woldin faene cum to pees. 1472 Presentments of Juries in Surtees Misc. (1890) 24 John Bek is a vacabound. 1483 Ibid. 28 One Wrodyngton, a waykabound. 1530–1 Act 22 Hen. VIII, c. 12 It shall be leful to the constables..to arest the sayde vacaboundes and ydell persones. 1578 Whetstone Promos & Cass. ii. iv. i, Fetche me in all ydle vacaboundes. |
| β 1453 Rolls of Parlt. V. 270/1 Thomas Watkynson..Yoman and Robert Withes late of Salley in the shire of York Vacabunde. 1495 Coventry Leet Bk. 568 All maner vacabundes & beggers myghty in body within þis Citie. 1530 Palsgr. 183 Vngz piegz, a payre of stockes to punysshe vacabundes. 1552 Nottingham Rec. IV. 103 Any vacabunde, suspect person, or nowghty people. 1584 Mirr. Mag. 16 b, He commaunded, that vnto a nomber of yong diseased vacabunds, there shuld be ministred a thin Diet, an excessiue labor, and cleanly lodging. |
| γ 1472 Presentments of Juries in Surtees Misc. (1890) 24 Thomas Dransfeld..liffez as a vacabond. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxviii. 85 There was no begger, vacabonde, nor rybault..but by grete flockys they came. 1563 in Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 303 Beggers or vakabondes do come into the Cytye. 1588 Greene Perimedes Wks. (Grosart) VII. 39 Hast thou these fourteen yeeres gone as a vacabonde about the world vnknowen and despised? |
| δ 1556 Nottingham Rec. (1889) IV. 113 He dothe harber wacabones. 1567 Harman Caveat 19 Vagarantes and sturdy vacabons. 1571 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias E iij b, Betten with a codgell like a Slaue, a Vacaboun, or a lasie Lubber. |
2. attrib. or as adj. (
Cf. vagabond a.)
| 1538 Elyot, Errabundus, moche wanderynge, or vacabunde. 1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds §190 The true beginning of the Frenchmen was by a vacabunde captayne named Marcomyrus. 1552 Huloet, Vacabund parson, erro. 1591 Savile Tacitus, Hist. ii. viii. 57 Adjoining vnto him certaine fugitiue and beggerly vacabond persons. |