vague [M16th] A number of English words descend from Latin vagari ‘to wander’ and vagus ‘wandering’. In the 16th century vague applied the idea of a ‘wandering’ mind to someone who cannot think or communicate clearly. A vagabond [ME] was originally just a vagrant [LME], someone who roams from place to place without a settled home, until it acquired the additional suggestion of ‘an unprincipled or dishonest man’. Before it came to refer to impulsive changes or whims, as in ‘the vagaries of fashion’, vagary [M16th] was used to mean ‘to wander’.