different between slacker vs loafer

English

Etymology

From slack +? -er; compare especially slack off.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?slæk?/
• Rhymes: -æk?(r)

Noun

slacker (plural slackers)

1. One who procrastinates or is lazy.
2. A person lacking a sense of direction in life; an underachiever.
3. A person who seeks to avoid military service.
   • 1918 September 10, New York Times, "Take Slackers into Army",

     [S]everal hundred prisoners captured in North Jersey slacker raids last week and sent to this camp are being Inducted into military service today...

   • 1943 September 29, New York Times, "Wheeler assails Bureau 'Slackers'",

     Senator Burton K. Wheeler opened his fight in the Senate today..., raising the cry of "slackers" against deferred workers in Government establishments and industry.

4. (rare) A user of the Slackware Linux operating system.
   • 1996 August 15, stephen benson, "Re: How broken is Infomagic's Redhat linux?", comp.os.linux.setup, Usenet,

     I'm a slacker from way back btw

   • 2002 January 15, Josh, "Re: slackware installation issue", comp.os.linux, Usenet,

     Hope you become a happy slacker.

   • 2007 May 16, Dan C, "Re: Distro Poll, what do you use?", alt.os.linux, Usenet,

     Any real Slacker would know better than to top-post, AND post a bunch of HTML-crap to boot. You're not worthy.

5. A member of a certain 1990s subculture associated with Generation X.

Translations

Anagrams

• Clarkes, calkers, lackers, rackles, recalks

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l??f?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?lo?f?/
• Rhymes: -??f?(r)

Etymology 1

Perhaps short for landloafer, possibly a partial translation of German Landläufer (compare dialectal German loofen (“to run”), and English landlouper); or connected to Middle English love, loove, loffinge, looffinge (“a remnant, the rest, that which remains or lingers”), from Old English l?f (“remainder, residue, what is left”) (more at lave), which is akin to Scots lave (“the rest, remainder”), Old English l?fan (“to leave behind”) (more at leave).

Noun

loafer (plural loafers)

1. An idle person.
2. A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.

Synonyms

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

Translations

Etymology 2

From American Spanish lobo (“wolf”) (/?lo?o/), reinterpreted as or conflated with loafer (“idler”); compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations. Doublet of lupus and wolf.

Alternative forms

• lobo, lobo wolf
• lofer (wolf), lover (wolf), loper (wolf)

Noun

loafer (plural loafers)

1. (Southwestern US dialects) A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.

Usage notes

• Often used in compound with "wolf": "loafer wolf".

Further reading

• Robert N. Smead, Vocabulario Vaquero/Cowboy Talk: A Dictionary of Spanish Terms from the American West

Anagrams

• Florea, florae, floræ