peregrinus

Peregrinus is a Latin noun and adjective meaning foreigner, stranger, traveler, or pilgrim. In classical Latin, the term described someone from outside a place or a person who travels between lands; in modern usage it survives in words such as peregrine and peregrination.

In the Roman world, peregrini were non-citizens living within the empire. They lacked full ius civile but conducted relations under the law of nations (ius gentium) and other local rules. The distinction between cives Romani and peregrini persisted until citizenship was extended more broadly by the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 CE, after which the legal gap between citizens and non-citizens narrowed. The term also appears in Christian and medieval Latin to refer to travelers or pilgrims, especially those visiting sacred sites.

In literature, Peregrinus Proteus is a well-known figure whose name literally means "wanderer." He is described in sources such as Lucian of Samosata as a Cynic philosopher who traveled widely and later provoked controversy; his life has been cited as an example of a wandering foreigner who claimed philosophical authority.

Today, peregrinus primarily appears in historical or linguistic contexts to describe foreignness, travel, or pilgrimage. The word survives in English-derived terms such as peregrination and in the epithet peregrine, used in various modern and literary forms.