nomad

Etymology

From Middle French nomade, from Latin Nomas (“wandering shepherd”), from Ancient Greek νομάς (nomás, “roaming, wandering, esp. to find pasture”), from Ancient Greek νομός (nomós, “pasture”). Compare Numidia.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnəʊmæd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnoʊmæd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

nomad (plural nomads)

1. (anthropology) A member of a society or class who herd animals from pasture to pasture with no fixed home.
   • 1587, Philippe de Mornay, translated by Philip Sidney et al., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, viii, p. 113:

     The life of the people called the Nomads or Grazyers...

   • 2013 August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

2. (figuratively) Synonym of wanderer: an itinerant person.
3. (figuratively) A person who changes residence frequently.
   • 2010, J. Knight, Unloved, →ISBN, page 58:

     Once again Judy was a nomad, moving to yet again another destination.

   • 2014, Dan Lovett, Anybody Seen Dan Lovett?: Memoirs of a media nomad, →ISBN, page 10:

     I made my exit down I-75, heading south. After a 40-year odyssey as a media nomad, I will be closing the circle in a place where my life had never been better.

   • 2016, Daniel Coffeen, Reading the Way of Things: Towards a New Technology of Making Sense, →ISBN:

     Poise is the posture of the nomad, moving while always at home.

4. (figuratively, sports) A player who changes teams frequently.
   • 2008, John Devaney, Full Points Footy's WA Football Companion, →ISBN, page 282:

     With the recruitment of South Australian football nomad, and eventual legend of the game, Phil Matson, Subiaco would improve considerably in 1912.

   • 2014, Wayne Stewart, Stan the Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial, →ISBN, page 49:

     Unlike players who were often traded, baseball nomads who carried a hobo's bindle rather than a bat on their shoulders, Musial stayed put in St. Louis.

   • 2015, Pete Cava, Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players, →ISBN:

     Between 1996 and 2003, Lewis was a baseball nomad. At various times he signed contracts with San Diego, Detroit, Oakland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, the New York Mets, Cleveland, and the Chicago Cubs.

Adjective

nomad (comparative more nomad, superlative most nomad)

1. Synonym of nomadic.

References

• "nomad, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

• Damon, Doman, Domna, Mando, Monda, mad on, mad-on, mando, monad

Etymology

Borrowed from French nomade. Compare Aromanian numad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /noˈmad/

Noun

nomad m (plural nomazi, feminine equivalent nomadă)

1. nomad

Further reading

• “nomad”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nǒmaːd/
• Hyphenation: no‧mad

Noun

nòmād m (Cyrillic spelling но̀ма̄д)

1. nomad

Etymology

Borrowed from French nomade. Attested since 1766.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔmɑːd/, /nʊmɑːd/
• Rhymes: -ɑːd

Noun

nomad c

1. nomad

References

• nomad in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• nomad in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• nomad in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)