The word "流浪汉" is formed from three characters: 流, meaning "to flow" or "drift", and 浪, meaning "wave" or "wander", combine to create the compound "流浪", indicating the act of roaming or living without a fixed home; the character 汉, meaning "man" or "person", is appended to specify that it refers to a male individual who engages in such wandering, resulting in a term that denotes a vagrant or homeless man.