THE WORD "LOAFER."

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 532, 20 July 1869, Page 3

THE WORD "LOAFER."

The word loafer is very common in America, as it is in these colonies. The expression orly found its way into writing about the year IS3O, but had been in- use long before, especially in the vicinity of the markets. It is equivalent to vagabond intensified, and its personal application is one of the greatest insults that can be offered to an American--something like calling a Frenchman canaille. It is singular that the verb (of later formation) has not necessarily a bad meaning; a man will say of himself, "I have been loafing about:" that is, I have been lounging, or idling. As to the derivation, it clearly has nothing to do with loaf. We must seek the root in Dutch. It may be from I oof, primarily iceory, fired, thence fainthearted, lazy, cowardly ; but it more probably comes from loqpen (=German laufen ; compare in English inter-loper.) The term loper, applied to deserters from South-Sea whalers, and jack-tar's familiar Ismi-lubber, are probably connected. Looper in old Dutch —such Dutch as honest old Peter Siruyvesant may have used—meant a running footman, so that perhaps the idea of " lackey " or " flunkey " was mixed up with the term of contempt.