Scrimshanker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone who dodges or evades their assigned duties, especially military or naval service, by pretending to be busy or unwell
2. A person who shirks work or responsibility in the armed forces by feigning illness or finding excuses to avoid service
3. One who slacks off and skulks away from obligatory tasks, particularly in the navy or army, to escape hard labour and danger

Etymology: Scrimshanker is a British military slang word from the First World War, and its story is mostly about the word "scrimshank" itself, which the Wiktionary entry gives only as a base form plus the agent suffix "-er". The source does not give a date for "scrimshank", so I will not supply one. What the source does establish is the suffix's pedigree: "-er" traces back through Old English "-ere" and Old French "-ier" to Latin "-arius", a suffix that marked a person connected with a trade or role, and it has been used to form agent nouns in English for centuries. The word therefore means one who scrimshanks, that is, one who shirks duty. Adding "-er" to a verb in this way produces a person who habitually performs the action, so a scrimshanker is someone who keeps dodging work or drill.

Synonyms: shirker, slacker, malingerer, skiver

Antonyms: worker, achiever