Hustling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moving quickly and energetically to achieve tasks or goals ; actively seeking customers or opportunities, sometimes through aggressive or dishonest means
2. Exerting great effort and speed in work or activity ; pushing or promoting oneself or goods in a forceful or often unscrupulous way
3. Working hard with urgency and determination ; engaging in persistent, sometimes unethical, efforts to obtain money or business

Etymology: "Hustling" is the present participle of "hustle," so its story is really the story of the verb. The verb comes from Dutch, most likely from "husselen," meaning "to shake up," though it may instead have been reshaped from "hutselen" by a shift in the order of its sounds, a process linguists call metathesis. Either way, both candidates trace back to "hutsen," meaning "to stir" or "to move something back and forth," and the verb's form marks it as repeated or ongoing action, a shaking-up that happens over and over. The sense of physical jostling is the original one. Shaking something up means pushing it around vigorously, and that energetic motion gradually came to describe people. A person who hustles is moving busily, pressing forward, and trying to get things done, which explains the modern sense of working hard toward a goal. From there the meaning drifted toward pushiness. Actively chasing customers or opportunities can shade into aggressive or unscrupulous conduct, so the word now covers both diligent striving and sharp dealing. The same vigorous shaking that began as a physical image ended up describing a particular style of getting ahead.

Synonyms: working, rushing, bustling, hurrying, scurrying

Antonyms: idling, loafing, lazing, dawdling, relaxing