Lusking

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Lazily lurking or loitering about, often hidden away from view and avoiding work or activity
2. Idling in a secluded or concealed spot, lying low in a sluggish and shiftless manner
3. Skulking about in a lazy, sluggish way, keeping out of sight rather than doing anything useful

Etymology: Few English readers would guess that "lusking" shares a root with "lush", the word for rich, green and abundant. The two came from the same Germanic stem, *laskwaz, meaning "sluggish, dull, lazy," but they split apart as they travelled. The Old Norse form "lǫskr" meant "weak, idle," and it passed into Middle English as "lusk," which kept the idle sense. "Lush" took a different path, and its earlier sense of soft, flabby or languid softened over time into the modern idea of lavish growth. "Lusk" is the verb from which "lusking" comes. Its ancestry reaches back further still, to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to let" or "to subside," which points to something loosening and going slack. The same sense is preserved in Middle Dutch "lasch," meaning "flabby, loose," and Middle Low German "las," meaning "tired, dull." Together these related forms show that the idea behind "lusking" was originally one of limpness rather than deliberate shirking.