loafer

1) The origin of this word is altogether uncertain. Two etymologies have been suggested for it, viz. the German laufer, a runner; and the Spanish gallofo (whence the Ital. gagloffo,) a wandering mendicant; a vagabond.

2) A vagabond; an idle lounger. This peculiarly American word has been gradually growing into extensive use during the last twenty years. It was applied in the first place to the vagrants of our large towns, in which sense it is equivalent to the lazzarone of Naples or the lepero of Mexico. It is now, however, frequently applied in conversation and in the newspapers to idlers in general; and seems to have lost somewhat of its original vulgarity. The Philadelphia Vade Mecum has the following remarks upon it:

"This is a new word, and, as yet, being but a colt, or a chrysalis, is regarded as a slang epithet. It is, however, a good word, one much needed in the language, and will, in time, establish itself in the most refined dictionaries. It will mount into good society, and be uttered by aristocratic lips; for it is the only word designating the most important species of the genus idler--the most important, because the most annoying branch of that family.

"The loafer is not exclusively, as some suppose him, a ragged step-and-corner lounger, who sleeps in the sun, and 'hooks' sugar on the whaff. On the contrary, the propensity to loaf is confined to no rank in life; all conditions are, more or less, troubled with it. Like squinting, the king and the beggar may be equally afflicted with the imperfection. There be your well-dressed monied loafer, as well as your loafer who is nightly taken by the watch.

"He is that kind of a man, who, having nothing to do, or being unwilling to do anything, cannot keep his tediousness to himself, and therefore bestows it all upon others, not when they are at leisure for conversational recreation, but when business presses, and they would look black upon the intrusion of a sweetheart or a three-day wife. He is the drag-chain upon industry, and yet so far different from the drag-chain, that he hitches to the wheel when the pull is up hill. Loving the excitement of busy scenes, yet too lazy to be an actor in them, where men are busiest, there, too, is to be found the pure, unadulterated loafer, sprawling about as the hound sprawls before the fire in every body's way, and tripping up every body's heels. In the store, he sits upon the counter, swinging his useless legs, and gaping vacantly at the movements around him. In the office, he effectually checks necessary conversavion among those who do not wish their business bruited to the world, turns over papers which he has no right to touch, and squints at contents which he bas no right to know. In the counting-house, he perches on a stool, interrupts difficult calculations with chat as idle as himself, follows the bustling clerk to the storehouse, pouches the genuine Havana, quaffs nectar from proof-glasses, and makes himself free of the good things which belong to others."