hustler

Etymology

It is formed from English hustle + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Hustle is from Dutch hutselen (“to shake, toss”), also husselen,^[2][4] a frequentative of hutsen;^[2][4] the OED compares Middle Dutch hutselen (“to shake the money in the game of hustle-cap”), North Frisian hütseln (“to toss about”) and Middle High German hutzen, and says that the stems “hot-” and “hut-” appear in many German dialect words of shaking.^[2] It is related to hotch.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thief, especially one of a gang of pickpockets who jostle their victim: 1825, in Knapp and Baldwin's Newgate Calendar.^[2][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1815–25.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first hustlers took part in hustling a victim, pushing and jostling him while a pickpocket robbed him, a use of the verb hustle,^[2][5] whose sense "to push roughly" Etymonline dates to 1751.^[4] The sense spread to anyone living by dishonest means,^[2][3] and in American slang to a racetrack tout (1892).^[5] With the sense of hustle "to work busily, move quickly", recorded from 1821,^[4] a hustler became an energetic, pushing person or an aggressive salesman: Etymonline dates this to 1884 and the OED to 1886, in Publishers' Weekly.^[4][2][5] The Derby Daily Telegraph in 1904 called the hustler "an American creation".^[5] The slang sense "prostitute", in American English especially a male homosexual one, is recorded from 1924.^[2][4][7] Merriam-Webster also records a professional gambler or swindler, a vendor, a pottery worker who carries ware to the kiln, and in New Zealand a tined tillage implement.^[8]

Timeline

• 1825 – a thief; one of a gang of pickpockets who jostle their victims.^[2][4]
• 1882 – in the United States, a hustling storm.^[2]
• 1886 – an energetic, pushing person; an aggressive salesman.^[2][5]
• 1892 – a racetrack tout.^[5]
• 1924 – a prostitute.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An energetic, enterprising and sometimes unscrupulous person; a go-getter, especially an aggressive salesman: She was a hustler who sold more cars than anyone in the region.^[8][2][3]
2. A person who gets money by fraud, such as a swindler or a professional gambler who cheats.^[8][2][1]
3. (slang) A prostitute.^[8][2][7]
4. A pickpocket's accomplice who jostles the victim.^[8][5][2]
5. (New Zealand) A tillage implement with tines for stirring the soil.^[8]

Related words

• hustle
• hotch

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster