# backpacker



## Casquilho

Here is a challenge, guys: how can I say "backpacker", following the structure of Latin? I know it will probably be modern Latin and it is ok.

I mean "backpacker" as conjugating the ideas of "backpack" and "traveler"; I think _viator _or _peregrinator _translates the last, and I've found _sacciperium _as an approximated correspondence to "backpack".

Can you help me?


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## wandle

The question really is, what do you want to say?
*mantica* is a bag that was regularly carried on the back or over the shoulder.
A traveller in the ancient would naturally have a bag, so that to speak of travelling _with a bag on your back_ would be unnecessary as it would be understood.


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## Ben Jamin

wandle said:


> The question really is, what do you want to say?
> *mantica* is a bag that was regularly carried on the back or over the shoulder.
> A traveller in the ancient would naturally have a bag, so that to speak of travelling _with a bag on your back_ would be unnecessary as it would be understood.


Viator pedester?


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## Scholiast

sarcinifer?


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## Casquilho

wandle, I would like to convey this idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacking_(travel) - in Pt we say "mochileiro" and "mochilão" (from "mochila") for "backpacker" and "backpacking" respectively.
If it's possible to construct a single word in Latin for that, all the better, I don't mind if it be a neologism.

Scholiast, I like your _sarcinifer_, but what is the root?


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## Scholiast

_sarcina_ = (military - but not exclusively) baggage - shoulder-borne.

-_ifer_ as in _signifer_, _crucifer_,indeed _Lucifer_.


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## Casquilho

Scholiast said:


> _sarcina_ = (military - but not exclusively) baggage - shoulder-borne.
> 
> -_ifer_ as in _signifer_, _crucifer_,indeed _Lucifer_.



Thank you! I think _sarcinifer peregrinator _express the idea.


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## Scholiast

saluete et iterum!

_sarcinifer *peregrinus*_ might be a tad neater.

Σ


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## Casquilho

Thanks to all!


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## Ben Jamin

I think that before starting a translation process one should decide what is the purpose of the translation. Do we want to translate the word as a sum of elements or as a meaning? Sarcinifer conveys the meaning of a person carrying a bag on the shoulders, but is this really the meaning of backpacker? Does it mean anybody that carries a burden on the shoulders? Are for instance the Sherpas carrying the luggage of tourists in Himalaya backpackers?


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## wandle

Well said, *Ben Jamin*. That is why I asked the question in post 2. 
It would help to have an English sentence containing 'backpacker' to show the intended meaning.


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## Ben Jamin

I think that the essential meaning of a backpacker is a traveler that wants to travel using little money, usually at the expense of comfort. The traveler may or may not actually carry a backpack.


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