Lusk

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To skulk about or lie hidden and inactive, avoiding work or notice ; a lazy, shiftless person who shirks effort
2. Dialect word meaning to lurk out of sight or loaf about idly ; an idler, a sluggard who avoids any kind of labor
3. Archaic verb for lying low or hanging about without purpose ; a noun for a lazy good-for-nothing who will not work

Etymology: "Lusk" is a word that has been used for both a lazy person and a lazy, slack-jawed kind of idleness, and its roots run through Old Norse into the North Sea languages. It came into Middle English from Old Norse "lǫskr," meaning "weak" or "idle," which in turn descends from a Proto-Germanic word for "sluggish, dull, lazy." Its closest relatives are Middle Dutch "lasch" ("flabby, loose") and Middle Low German "lasch" and "las" ("tired, dull"), which show the same sense of a body or mind that has gone slack. The most surprising connection is that "lusk" is a doublet of "lush." Both come from the same Germanic root, but "lush" took a path through the idea of soft, tender, juicy growth, while "lusk" kept the older sense of limpness and inactivity. The two words split apart long ago and now look and sound unrelated, yet they share a single ancestor that meant something close to "loose" or "slack."

Synonyms: idler, loafer, slacker

Antonyms: worker