loafer

Meaning

Noun

• An idle person.
• A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.
• A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.

Related

Similar words

• (idle person): bum, bumpkin, footler, idler, lout, yob, yobbo
• (footwear): penny loafer

Origin

• Perhaps short for landloafer, possibly a partial translation of German Landläufer (compare dialectal German loofen, and English landlouper); or connected to Middle English love, loove, loffinge, looffinge, from Old English lāf ("remainder, residue, what is left") (more at lave), which is akin to Scots lave ("the rest, remainder"), Old English læfan ("to leave behind") (more at leave).
• From American Spanish lobo ("wolf") (), reinterpreted as or conflated with loafer; compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations. lupus, and wolf.