Putzing

Putzing (or to putz around) is the verb-form of the American slang term “putz”, referring to someone standing around and waiting aimlessly.

In its original noun form, the word means a variety of things, from a male’s genitals to a rude person.

As a verb, however, putzing always means somebody is spending time at one place, seemingly in an idle and frivolous manner.

The expression can be also said about someone who wastes time on purpose with useless activities.

The word’s etymology suggests that it came from the Yiddish word “puts’, which originally means “fiery” or “show”.

The expression was developed somewhere in the 1920s. When it comes to printed evidence,  it appeared as a verb initially  in an 1947 book called First Adventures in Reading: Introducing Children to Books, written by author May Lamberton Becker.

Putzing mostly occurs in American slang usage, however, this form of the expression has never been part of the group of widely successful idioms.

Due to its informality, it rarely makes appearances in mainstream media, and is only scarcely used on the internet too.

A definition was added to putzing on the site Urban Dictionary in 2007 by a user called anystupidassname.

• Merriam-webster.com – putz 
• Thefreedictionary.com – Putzing – definition of putzing by The Free Dictionary
• Yourdictionary.com – Putz definition
• Wordsense.eu – putzing