Beggarman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A man who lives by asking strangers for money, food or other charity, often because he has no home or income
2. Someone, usually male, who depends on the kindness of others by pleading for coins or scraps in public places
3. A poor man who survives by soliciting alms from passersby rather than through regular work or a steady wage

Etymology: "Beggarman" is a plain compound: "beggar" joined to "man," the second element used here in its old sense of a person of a particular kind, much as "horseman" or "countryman" name a type of person. The "beggar" part comes from the Anglo-Norman and Middle English word for a poor person who asks for alms, a word that by the Middle English period had become the everyday term for someone living by begging. Put together, the compound is transparent: it names a man whose trade is begging. The noun has long been used in folk songs and rhymes, where "beggarman" stands for a poor wanderer who depends on charity, which is the sense the word still carries today.

Synonyms: beggar, mendicant, pauper, vagrant, vagabond

Antonyms: millionaire, plutocrat