side hustle (side-hustle)
noun

- work performed for income supplementary to one’s primary job

- a piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job

- a job or occupation that brings in extra money beyond one’s regular job and main source of income

Merriam-Webster / Cambridge Dictionary

—
PHRASE ORIGIN

A few people do not have a main job, and make a living by putting together a number of “side hustles”. These side jobs are also called “gigs”, and are what make up the so-called “gig economy”.

The expression “side hustle” was first used in 1950, which makes the term much older than many people realize. The term became popular during and after the last recession, when traditional jobs disappeared and enterprising people needed to supplement their income.

Today, with the rising cost of groceries, debt, especially student debt, and the tenuousness of traditional day jobs, a record number of people make money online, earn extra cash in their spare time, and engage in side hustles.

The term side hustle is currently usually rendered as an open compound word, though some dictionaries list it with a hyphen, as in side-hustle. The word is a combination of the word “side” meaning not the main thing, and “hustle” meaning hurry, press ahead, to pursue something energetically.

—
SIDE-HUSTLE STATS

Almost 50% of people with a side hustle do it because they want to, not because of financial necessity

34% or one in three Americans have a side gig, of which

- 50% are millennials, and

- 70% are Gen Zs

Market Research predicts that 83% of Americans will perform gig work by 2027

The U.S. side-hustle market is valued at over $2.58 trillion

Sources: The New York Times, Market Research, U.S. Census

—
SYNONYMS

- to move or progress with great haste or urgency

barrel (along), beat it, beeline, beetle, belt (along), be off like a shot, blast, blaze, blitz, bolt, bomb(along), bullet, burn rubber, cannonball, careen, catapult, charge, cover ground, crack on, cut and run, do a bunk, do a runner, dog it, dogtrot, fast-track, flee, fly the coop, get a move on (cracking, going, it on), get moving (on it, your skates on), go all out (at breakneck/top speed), go headlong (hell for leather, like a bat out of hell, like a bomb, like a bullet, like greased lightning, like lightning, like the clappers, like the wind), head for the hills, hightail (it), hop to it, hotfoot (it), hurtle, HUSTLE, leg it, look alive, lose no time, make a quick exit (a run for it, haste, it snappy, oneself scarce, tracks), motor, move apace (briskly), not lose a minute, pelt (along), plunge ahead, put on a burst of speed (your foot down), rattle along, rocket, run like mad (the wind), rush headlong, scarper, scat, scoot, shake a leg, show a clean pair of heels, skedaddle, skidoo, split, sprint, step lively (on it, on the gas), storm (along), streak, surge through, take wing, tear along, tear up the miles, vroom, waste no time, whip along, whish, whisk, whistle, whiz, whizz, whoosh, zap, zip, zoom

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“I was amazed to learn about the size of the SIDE HUSTLE market in the U.S.”

—
HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40