also: プーたろう · ふうたろう · ぷうたろう
unemployed person; drifter; vagrant
Colloquial and often mildly derogatory. It usually implies someone is out of work, idle, or drifting without a steady occupation, rather than a neutral administrative term for unemployment.
After graduating from university, he was unemployed for a while.
day labourer; dockside day labourer
Only when written 風太郎
Rare, older or specialized use restricted to the spelling 風太郎. The gloss particularly points to day labourers working around the docks.
He is not even looking for work and is living like a drifter.
風太郎 is used as an old term for a day labourer working at a port.
After graduating from university, he became an unemployed drifter.
He's been an unemployed drifter for three years now.
無職 is the neutral, official term for being unemployed, while プー太郎 is casual slang that often carries a teasing or judgmental tone.
日雇い労働者 is the clear modern term for a day labourer, while the rare 風太郎 spelling of プー太郎 is an older, dockside-specific word for the same idea.
ニート specifically labels someone not in employment, education, or training, whereas プー太郎 is looser slang focused on idleness or drifting.
counter for people
Attested kanji spelling and reading; rare in modern everyday writing and especially relevant to the older day-labourer sense.
Attested alternate reading of 風太郎; rare and liable to be unclear without context.
Mixed katakana-kanji spelling for the colloquial modern word.
Mixed hiragana-kanji spelling; informal and less standard-looking than プータロー.
The historical derivation is uncertain. 太郎 is a common male-name element used in colloquial labels, while プー or ぷー is part of the established informal form; no loanword origin is specified.