loafer

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] Most dictionaries take it as perhaps from English short for land-loafer, a vagabond or idler,^[4][5][6][7] itself a partial translation of German Landläufer (“vagabond, tramp”),^{[4][5][7][8][9]} which the American Heritage Dictionary takes from Middle High German landlöufer, formed from lant (“land”) and loufer (“runner”), from loufen (“to run”).^[4] The German word is formed from Land (“land”) and Läufer (“runner”), from laufen (“to run”), which has a dialect form lofen,^[2][8][10] a relative of leap.^[2] Barnhart records land-loafer from 1836 and the older landloper from 1795;^[7] Dictionary.com also compares Dutch landloper.^[6] The OED, however, finds the link with German "not very probable", though the German word's sense is close to that of loafer, and rejects as unfounded Lowell's guess that the verb loaf comes from that German dialect verb;^[3] it suggests instead that the noun may be from English loaf + -er, or that the verb may be a back-formation from the noun.^[3] Barnhart, Hoad and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take the verb, first recorded in 1835, as a back-formation from loafer,^[7][11][5] and Hoad calls the noun of obscure origin.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who spends his or her time idly: 1830, in the Mechanic's Press of Utica, New York.^[3][2] Dictionary.com dates it 1820–30 and calls it an Americanism.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 20th century Loafer was registered as a trademark for a casual slip-on shoe, in 1939, by Fortnum and Mason in London,^[7][3] and the shoe's name, often in the plural, came into general use;^[3][12] Etymonline dates the shoe to 1937.^[2] The OED also records Loafer as a trade name for an informal jacket from 1959.^[3]

Timeline

• 1830 – a person who spends time in idleness.^[3][2]
• 1939 – a casual shoe, first as a proprietary name.^[3][7]
• 1959 – an informal jacket, as a proprietary name.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who loafs; a lazy person, an idler: The bench outside the store was a favourite spot for local loafers.^[5][12]
2. A low leather shoe without laces, with a flat heel, shaped like a moccasin; originally a trademark.^[5][12][9]

Word family

• loaferish

Related words

• loaf
• landloper
• leap

Usage notes

The North American loafer or loafer wolf, the grey or timber wolf, is recorded from about 1877;^[3][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives it a separate entry and takes it by folk etymology from Spanish lobo (“wolf”), from Latin lupus,^[5] and the OED compares the Spanish word.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins