# rōnin



## silver frog

Greetings! I would like to learn more about the Japanese word *rōnin*. 
All I know is that it refers to a *masterless samurai*. 

But I'd like to know what does this word mean _literally_, though, for example if it is the compound of two terms and what they mean individually. I was once told it literally means "free dog" but I can't find any evidence of this, so I am beginning to think it is only a myth. 

If you could also provide the Japanese characters for these word, it would be great. I'm really curious. Thank you in advance!


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## Anatoli

浪人 (ろうにん) - wasteful person?

By the way, the modern meaning includes "a person who failed at the University exams and waiting for another chance".


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## Juuuergen

It literally means "wave person." From what I understand, it was originally used for peasants who fled from their master's land, but later it was used to describe masterless samurai. 

I'm not sure what is meant by "wave person," but that's what it literally translates to.


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## Anatoli

"wave" is only one of the meanings, as an adjective-component, it means frivolous, unrestrained; wasteful. Only used as a component with on'yomi "rō".

The word 浪人 is originally Chinese (làngrén) - vagrant; dismissed courtier; unemployed/jobless person, hobo. It's also used to refer to the Japanese rōnin.


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## lammn

silver frog said:


> But I'd like to know what does this word mean _literally_, though, for example if it is the compound of two terms and what they mean individually.


 
I think 浪人 is composed of 流浪 and 人.
流浪(るろう) means "to wander" (in both Japanese and Chinese).
人(にん) is a person.
So, 浪人 is a person who wanders.

As Anatoli has already suggested, the term should have come from Chinese.


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## Anatoli

lammn said:


> ...
> 流浪(るろう) means "to wander" (in both Japanese and Chinese).
> ...


Thanks for further examples. Just on 流浪 - this kind of "verb" requires する　"suru" added to the end of it.


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## lammn

Anatoli said:


> Thanks for further examples.


You are welcome.



Anatoli said:


> Just on 流浪 - this kind of "verb" requires する　"suru" added to the end of it.


 
I know. 流浪 by itself is a noun in Japanese.
It needs する to make it a verb.
I didn't mention it in my previous post because I want to make it more comparable to Chinese.


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## mikun

Hi,
浪人 is used for the unemployed samurai in Edo era.
As the Edo era was stable society, those who were fired is very difficult to find another job. 浪人 was used for those fired and no job class samurai.
Now it is used mainly for post high school boys/girls who failed in College qualifying examination and wait for next year chance without doing any work.
We call one year waiting boys/girls　１浪、　2 years waiting ２浪,---.
This　浪人 is used also for post graduated people who failed to enter working society, named 就職浪人.


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## Flaminius

silver frog said:


> But I'd like to know what does this word mean _literally_, though, for example if it is the compound of two terms and what they mean individually.


Hello,

I take from the quote above that you are interested in how the word started out.  The literal sense is somewhat problematic since _rōnin_ was written with different characters from what it is today up until ca. 18th century.  According to  国史大辞典 (vol. 14. 1993. pp 777-8; link mine):
領地や地位・俸禄などを失って、落魄することを牢籠といい、牢籠している人すなわち牢籠人がつづまって牢人の語になった。 (....) なお牢人は浪人とも書いた。浪人の字義は本来は本籍の地を離れて流浪する浮浪の者の意で別義である。しかし「牢人は字さへあさまし穴冠、牛か午かと人に言はれて」（『世話用文章』）などとさげすまれる牢の字を嫌って、江戸時代中期以降はほとんど浪人の字を用いるようになったという。​  An attestation of 牢人 is dated as early as 1213.  

To translate the gist of the article, _rōnin_ was spelt out as 牢人, which is short for 牢籠人, or a person in the status of 牢籠.  牢籠 (_rōrō_) is being down and out for losing feud, status or stipend; in another word, to be cast out from the establishment of feudal society.  浪人, a homonym originally meant a vagrant, absorbed the sense of a leige-less samurai.  This was to avoid the stigmatised character 牢.

In a time when the demand was great for samurais, finding a new leige was not a big problem.  Many samurais even voluntarily left their leiges for a better one.  Thus, the stigmatised connotations of 牢人 was not very visible.  It is only in the late 17th and the 18th century that this historical word started to be a slur.  By then, it became very evident that the law and order established by Tokugawa shogunate had deprived all hopes of _rōnin_s who looked forward to an employment under a feudal lord.  Hiring skilled soldiers was not a top priority for them any more.  They were, on the contrary, very eager to reduce employment in order to minimise expenditure.  They would hire those who are useful for their administrations but most _rōnin_s were not material for good bureacrats.


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## silver frog

I apologize for my late reply. I wanted to thank you all for the kind answers and in particular Flaminius for the detailed explanation about the origins of the term. That was exactly what I was looking for. 

Many thanks to you all for your kind help! Have a nice day!


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