One way to hold this word: drift + -er, the one that goes with the water. Something loose in a current is carried along and does not steer, and every use of drifter points at that picture — a person with no fixed place, a boat that lets its net ride the tide, a sail for the day the wind has almost stopped, a car sliding sideways instead of the road.
drifter 可以想成「順著走的那一個」：drift（漂）加上 -er（做這件事的人或東西）。畫面就像水面上一樣鬆開的東西，水往哪裡去，它就往哪裡去，自己不出力轉向。這個字的每一種用法都掛在這張圖上：沒有固定落腳處的人、讓網跟著潮水漂的漁船、風幾乎停了才升起來的輕帆，還有在彎道上鬆開抓地力、橫著滑過去的車。
From the word’s history
Wiktionary's tree for this headword gives it as English drift plus the agent ending -er (Old English -ere), so the word is literally 'the one that drifts'.
封包裡的 Wiktionary 字源樹寫著：drifter 來自 drift 加上表示「做這件事的人／東西」的字尾 -er（古英語 -ere）。字面就是「會漂的那一個」，所以後面每一種用法都還看得到這條線。
Wiktionary entry supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:904891082) — 'From drift (verb) + -er'.
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。