English
landlouper
Landlouper comes from Dutch landloper ‘a vagabond, a vagrant’.
- Dutchc. 1500–presentlandloper‘a vagabond, a vagrant’literally ‘land-runner’
- Englishearliest quotation 1856landlouper
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Dutchc. 1500–presentlandloper‘a vagabond, a vagrant’literally ‘land-runner’
- Englishearliest quotation 1856landlouper
Earliest quotation: 1856, John Lothrop Moltey, The Rise of the Dutch Republic: “Bands of landloupers had been employed[…]”
Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- ‘land’
Proto-Germanic *landą
Proto-West Germanic *land ‘land’
Old English land
Middle English lond ‘an independent nation’
English land
Proto-Indo-European *klewb- ‘to spring’
…
Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan ‘to jump forward, to leap’
Old English hlēapan ‘to jump’
Old English hlēapere ‘runner, leaper, dancer, courier, vagrant’
Middle English lepere
English leaper
The story
Borrowed from Dutch landloper (literally “land-runner”). Merged with native English landleaper; equivalent to land + leaper.
Every English word from Dutch landloper
Today it means
noun A vagabond; a vagrant.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Dutch landloper / landlouper