lubber

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dated or insulting: a large, clumsy, lazy, or foolish person

   The impatient officer called the slow recruit a lubber.

2. 2
   noun

   nautical, usually landlubber: an inexperienced or incompetent sailor

   The crew soon realized that the boastful passenger was a complete lubber at sea.

From Middle English lubber, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Scandinavian or continental words for a clumsy fellow. It first denoted a lazy or awkward person; sailors applied it to an inexperienced seaman, producing the now more familiar compound landlubber.

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