Do you like to mess around? Of course, everyone at least sometimes plunges into this sweet time of doing nothing. Today we’ll talk about the meaning of phraseology “chasing a loafer” and find out how it turned out that the name of the doctor turned into a noun denoting a loafer.
Peter the Great and the Germans
Here it’s worth mentioning immediately two influences. When Peter the Great launched the rapid process of Europeanization of Russia, a flood of foreigners poured into the fatherland, of course, there were Germans among them. As you might guess, it is unlikely that an overseas guest will begin to trouble himself with low-skilled labor as a farm laborer. The arrivals were mainly estate managers. In this case, cultural exchange is inevitable, and therefore the word Lodder appeared in Russian. In modern German, two “d” changed to a pair of “t”, but this did not change the essence. This is, so to speak, the linguistic side, but it was also purely practical, in other words, what the people saw.
Lauder Christian Ivanovich (1753-1832)
There was a doctor whose name the Russian language immortalized - Lauder Christian Ivanovich (1753-1832). Do not think that the medic was Russian or was only an ethical German. He changed his name for convenience when he moved to live and work in Russia. In 1825 in Moscow, he founded some analogue of German mineral waters, which were located in Baden-Baden. Now gentlemen could, without going abroad, improve their health. True, it was more a fashion than a necessity. As in any resort, the most important there, of course, were dating, novels. However, we were distracted, although novels have undoubted therapeutic effects, we are not talking about them.
We consider the meaning of phraseology “chasing a loafer” and its origin. And for this, it is only important for us that patients took mineral baths, drank water, and also a promenade in the park was part of the mandatory treatment program. It was necessary to walk for 3 hours. Such a whim could not afford the poor, only the rich came to the sanatorium. They were brought by cabmen who watched the gentlemen walk around the park. The park was large, so when passers-by at the cabmen were interested in what was actually happening, they answered: “They are driving a loafer”. The value of phraseologism owes its appearance to the coachmen. They did not really understand what kind of whim the gentlemen had.
Value
We apologize to the reader that we devoted so much time to the origin of the object of study, but this is the most interesting thing in it, and the rest is more or less known. The meaning of phraseology “chasing a loafer” comes down to the definition of “idleness”. But, of course, like much in this world, a similar term is relative. If a person sitting at work does nothing, then, of course, by his actions he pays tribute to the name of the German doctor. But sometimes it’s not so simple. Sometimes, if a person is busy with something incomprehensible to others, he is considered a loafer.
Synonyms
Whenever possible, we do not deprive the reader and give him complete information. In this case, two types of synonyms can be given - in a word and phraseological phrase. First separate verbs:
- sit back;
- goof off
- sybarize;
- offload;
- filon;
- to shake.
Enough. Probably, you can pick up more, but enough of these to understand the general meaning and replenish the vocabulary.
Phraseological turns, similar in value, are as follows:
- Beat the buck.
- Count the raven.
- Fool around.
With phraseological units poorer, but nothing can be done. In any case, if the reader suddenly needs to replace the meaning of phraseologism “chasing the loafer” with one word, then he knows how to do it. When the task arises to pick up a similar stable phrase, problems should not arise either. We must remember that laziness is not bad, sometimes it is worth lounging, especially if there was a period of hard work. The brain and psyche also need rest.