nomade lat. nomas, -adis, mot grec. 1. Qui n’a pas d’etablissement fixe, parlant d’un groupe humain. Voir Ambulant, errant, instable, mobile. 2. Par ext. Vie Nomade Voir Errant, vagabond “Cet instinct nomade.., toujours en quete d’aventure” (Gide) 3. N. Peuple de nomades. Voir Forain. Antonym. Fixe, sedentaire
-Petit Robert, Alphabetique et Analogique de la Langue Française
nem-…B. Greek nomē, pasturage, grazing, hence a spreading, a spreading ulcer: NOMA C. Greek nomas, wandering in search of pasture: NOMAD
-Indo-European Roots, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
rahhaal, pl. rahal, roving, roaming, peregrinating , wandering, migratory, nomadic— (pl. rahhaala) great traveler, explorer, nomad. Al-tuyyuur al-rahhaala migratory birds
-A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Hans Wehr
vago, ga, adj. y s. Vacio, desocupado. Holgazan, vagabundo. Indeciso, Decimo nervio craneal
-Diccionario de La Lengua Española, Isidoro Diaz
I remember Miguel Diaz Vargas in Arequipa, rejected from compulsory military service because he was too short. Vago was written on his identity card, a misspelling of bajo. So his family laughed at him, saying he was a vagabond, a nomad, indecisive and a slacker. At least he got out of the draft.
KhairAllah, the greatest rahhaal I ever met, was never embarrassed to be a nomas, in the Ancient Greek sense, wandering in search of pasturage. “Gush” he called it (from the classical word qashsh, for straw), and whenever we came upon it, we stopped so the herd could graze and we all became a sedentary people, fixed, no longer errant, ambulatory, and unstable- but still forain, as in the Petit Robert’s first meaning for that word, although it is labeled as vx, for vieux, or out of date- Qui est dehors . We were always outdoors on the trail- KhairAllah, Rabih, Ahmad, Bilal, Mas’ood abu Dood, and the others- even when standing still and staying put.