A ne’er-do-well (plural: ne’er-do-wells) is a lazy, irresponsible, or worthless person who fails to achieve success or act in a useful way. [1]
Definition and MeaningLiteral Origin: A contraction of "never-do-well" (someone who never does well or succeeds).Core Traits: Chronic idleness, lack of ambition, financial irresponsibility, or general ineffectualness.
Flâneur derives from the Old Norse verb flana, "to wander with no purpose".[2]
The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. But it was in the 19th century that a rich set of meanings and definitions surrounding the flâneur took shape.[3]
The flâneur was defined in 1872 in a long article in Pierre Larousse's Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle. It described the flâneur in ambivalent terms, equal parts curiosity and laziness, and presented a taxonomy of flânerie: flâneurs of the boulevards, of parks, of the arcades, of cafés; mindless flâneurs and intelligent ones.[4]