It often happens that by the word we understand its approximate meaning, but when we are asked to explain it, we crush and get lost, not knowing what to say. Something similar happens, for example, with the word "tramp". It is obvious that it is somehow connected with bare feet, but how? It is necessary to deal with this in more detail. Is a tramp just walking barefoot? But why then is it used in a negative sense?
The lexical meaning of the word "tramp"
To be able to explain a word to another person, you need to deal with it yourself. The easiest way to find out what a word means is an explanatory dictionary. According to him, "tramp" is:
- Descended, impoverished man from the "declassified" layers of society.
- A person without a place of residence.
- Tattered.
- Sometimes a bully.
As you can understand, a "tramp" is any beggar who walks around the world "barefoot". In addition, with this word and its cognates "relatives" there are a number of frequently used expressions, and just examples that help to learn its use. For example:
- dressed as a tramp;
- leads a barefoot lifestyle;
- the ruined house served as a refuge for tramps;
- looks like a barefoot.
The roots and history of the "tramp." Different versions
Most often, people called barefoot people who did not have a place of residence and work, interrupted by casual earnings and wandered from an overnight stay to an overnight stay, so poor that they always and everywhere went barefoot (therefore they have the same root - "barefoot").
According to another version, the word "tramp" comes from port loaders. Allegedly, they worked barefoot and also slept without shoes, laying in the places where they could be hired, and on the feet they wrote down the price for which they were ready to work. The employer had already seen the price in advance, and he could only wake up the necessary tramp loader and immediately give him the task. Haggling after waking up was extremely undesirable - because of the heavy and sometimes fiery temper of the port inhabitants.