英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

layup (n.)[layup 词源字典]: also lay-up, "temporary period out of work," 1927, from lay (v.) + up (adv.). Basketball shot so called from 1948.[layup etymology, layup origin, 英语词源]
unemployed (adj.): 1600, "at leisure, not occupied," from un- (1) "not" + past participle of employ (v.). Meaning "temporarily out of work" is from 1660s. The noun meaning "unemployed persons collectively" is from 1782.
No man has hired us
With pocketed hands
And lowered faces
We stand about in open places
And shiver in unlit rooms ...

[T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from the Rock"]
work (n.): Old English weorc, worc "something done, discreet act performed by someone, action (whether voluntary or required), proceeding, business; that which is made or manufactured, products of labor," also "physical labor, toil; skilled trade, craft, or occupation; opportunity of expending labor in some useful or remunerative way;" also "military fortification," from Proto-Germanic *werkan (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch werk, Old Norse verk, Middle Dutch warc, Old High German werah, German Werk, Gothic gawaurki), from PIE *werg-o-, from root *werg- "to do" (see organ).
Work is less boring than amusing oneself. [Baudelaire, "Mon Coeur mis a nu," 1862]
Meaning "physical effort, exertion" is from c. 1200; meaning "scholarly labor" or its productions is from c. 1200; meaning "artistic labor" or its productions is from c. 1200. Meaning "labor as a measurable commodity" is from c. 1300. Meaning "embroidery, stitchery, needlepoint" is from late 14c. Work of art attested by 1774 as "artistic creation," earlier (1728) "artifice, production of humans (as opposed to nature)." Work ethic recorded from 1959. To be out of work "unemployed" is from 1590s. To make clean work of is from c. 1300; to make short work of is from 1640s. Proverbial expression many hands make light work is from c. 1300. To have (one's) work cut out for one is from 1610s; to have it prepared and prescribed, hence, to have all one can handle. Work in progress is from 1930 in a general sense, earlier as a specific term in accountancy and parliamentary procedure.