Freeloaders

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. People who exploit the goodwill of others without giving back
2. Individuals who enjoy the benefits provided by others, contributing minimally or not at all
3. Persons who use resources or help from others while making no effort to contribute in return

Etymology: The plural "freeloaders" is simply the plural of "freeloader," so the story belongs to the singular. "Freeloader" is built from three plain English parts: "free," "load," and the agent suffix "-er," which marks a person who does something. The "load" here is the old sense of a burden or weight, so the compound describes someone who puts a load on others while paying nothing toward it. The word arrived in American English in the 1930s. Its appearance then, rather than much earlier, suggests it was a fresh American coinage built from familiar materials rather than a term borrowed from another language. Nothing about the word requires Latin, Greek, or French to explain it. The plainest surprise is how transparent it is: a reader can work out its meaning from its parts without any dictionary, which is why it spread quickly once it appeared.

Synonyms: spongers, moocher, leech, scrounger, beggar

Antonyms: contributors, givers