loafer
noun

person:
- someone who avoids doing any work
- one who is habitually idle

shoe:
- a type of leather shoe without a fastening, that a person’s foot slides into
- A low leather step-in shoe with an upper resembling a moccasin but with a broad, flat heel

Cambridge Dictionary / American Heritage Dictionary

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ORIGIN

“Loafer” is short for the obsolete land-loafer (meaning a vagabond or idler) possibly a partial translation of the obsolete German Landläufer, from Middle High German landlöufer: land, land + löufer, runner (from loufen, to run, from Old High German hlouffan).

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LOVING LOAFING
Walt Whitman - 24 November 1840

“How I do love a loafer! Of all human beings, none equals your genuine, inbred, unvarying loafer. Now when I say loafer, I mean loafer; not a fellow who is lazy by fits and starts—who to-day will work his twelve or fourteen hours, and to-morrow doze and idle. I stand up for no such half-way business. Give me your calm, steady, philosophick son of indolence (1); one that doesn’t swerve from the beaten track; a man who goes the undivided beast. To such an one will I doff my beaver (2). No matter whether he be a street loafer or a dock loafer—whether his hat be rimless, and his boots slouched, and his coat out at the elbows: he belongs to that ancient and honourable fraternity, whom I venerate above all your upstarts, your dandies, and your political oracles.”

(1) Arbeitsunwilligkeit, (2) Ich ziehe meinen Hut

If you love to loaf, just google: “Sun-Down Papers - The Walt Whitman Archive 00313” to enjoy Whitman’s entire article,… as charming today as it was 182 years ago.

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SYNONYMS
for a person who is idle or lazy

avoider, bad boy, beachcomber, bludger, cadger, clock-watcher, couch potato, crawler, cyberslacker, dallier, dawdler, daydreamer, dilly-dallier, do-nothing, dodger, dragger, dreamer, foot-dragger, good-for-nothing, goof-off, idler, laggard, lagger, layabout, lazy-bones, lingerer, LOAFER, loiterer, lollygagger, lotus-eater, lounger, malingerer, moocher, ne’er-do-well, no-goodnik, passenger, plodder, procrastinator, saunterer, scrimshanker, shirker, sidestepper, skiver, slacker, sloth, slouch, sloucher, slowcoach, slowpoke, slubberdegullion, slug, sluggard, snail, sofa spud, straggler, tarrier, time-waster, timewaster, truant, video-gazer, Wearie Willie

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Are you sometimes a LOAFER, or are you a constant busy bee?”

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THANKS to Walt Whitman for pointing to today’s OWAD.

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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