浪人

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 浪人, read ろうにん, combines wandering 浪 with person 人, originally denoting someone without a settled affiliation.
• Basic usage: 一年浪人する means spending a year retaking entrance exams, while 浪人 in period fiction means a masterless samurai.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Distinguishing meanings
  • Modern exam context and historical fiction produce very different senses, so look for school- or samurai-related wording.