Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “slacker” come from?

Slacker comes from English slack plus the agent noun suffix -er, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -eh₂ through Latin -arius and -are, Old French -er, and Chinese 兒.

slacker (English): One who procrastinates or is lazy; A person...

Definitions

  1. One who procrastinates or is lazy; A person...

Ancestry of “slacker”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishslackThe part of anything that hangs loose, having no...
2Middle Englishslak—
3Old Englishslæclazy
4Proto-Germanicslakazslack, lax
5Proto-Indo-European(s)leh₁g-weak, feeble; weak, faint

Words derived from “slacker”

  • slackerdom
  • slackerish
  • slackerly
  • cyberslacker
Every word from Proto-Indo-European (s)leh₁g- →