vacabond

English

Noun

vacabond (plural vacabonds)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of vagabond
   • 1601, Acte for the necessarie Releife of Souldiers and Mariners:

     That everie Souldier or Mariner that shalbe taken beginge in any place within this Realme after the Feaste of Easter nexte, or any that shall counterfeite any Certificate in this Acte expressed, shall for ever lose his Annuitie or Pension, and shalbe taken deemed and adjudged as a common Rogue or Vacabond person, and shall have and sustayne the same, and the like Paynes Imprisonment and Punyshment as is appointed and provided for common rogues and vacabond persons.

   • 1766, Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large from the Magna Charta:

     And if any such Manniske, Scottish, or Irish rogue, vacabond or begger, be already, or shall at any time hereafter be set on land, or shall come into any part or England or Wales, the same, after hee or shee shall be punished as aforesaid, shall be conueyed to the next Port or Parish in or neere which ley were landed or first came, in such sort as rogues are appointed to be by this present act, & from thence to be transported at the common charge of the countrey where they were set on land into those parts from whence they came or were brought.

   • 1860 June, “Some Illustrations of the Sixteenth Century From the Records of the County of Middlesex”, in Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review, volume 8, page 576:

     Such "masterless men," decoyed into the tippling-houses, soon learnt to love idleness rather than honest labour, and helped to swell the crowd of rogues and "vacabonds" which infested the suburbs of London, to the terror of honest folk.

Usage notes

This version of the word predates any usage of the current form vagabond, by which it has now been replaced.