[f. WANDER v., after G. wanderjahr, the year, or one of the years, spent in travel for the purpose of perfecting one’s skill and knowledge between the completion of apprenticeship and settling down to the practice of a trade.] A year of wandering or travel (usually with more or less direct reference to German usage).
1873. Daily News, 26 July, 5/1. He went on his wander-yer of pilgrimage, with his tattered old book or two, and his pen and ink, as badges of his sacred mission.
1895. Outing, XXVI. 331/1. Traveling afoot like any poor student or mere Bursch of an artisan serving his wander-year.
1906. Daily Chron., 26 Oct., 3/3. Off to Philadelphia went Leland, when his wander-years were over, and the necessity of choosing a profession and making a living faced him.
1912. L. Tracy, Mirabel’s Isl., vii. (1915), 109. David had seen a good deal during his wander years, and he had never before secured such an auditor.
1914. H. M. Vaughan (title), An Australasian Wander-Year.
