cush·y
adjective cushier cush·i·er,
cushiest cush·i·est Informal Making few demands; comfortable: a cushy job.
Origin: Origin unknown.
Related Forms:
Word History: Since
cushy has a breezy American ring, it is difficult to believe that it is an import, as some etymologists claim. Members of the British army in India are supposed to have picked up the Anglo-Indian version of the Hindi word
ḳhuś, meaning “pleasant,” to which the suffix
-y, as in
empty and
sexy, was added to form a new English word.
Cushy, however, was first recorded in a letter from the European battlefront during World War I. This fact, in conjunction with our inability to find an Anglo-Indian source, casts some doubt on the Hindi or Anglo-Indian origin of
cushy. Two other possibilities are that
cushy is a shortening of
cushion with the
-y suffix or that it is a borrowing of French
couchée, “lying down; a bed.”
