Feeling like a loser

February 11th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

As “Addams Family” fans know, there’s only one Lurch, but there were three lurches. Two of them are outdated.

One former “lurch” was a variation of “lurk,” with which it was synonymous. That “lurch” also carried the meanings “to prevent (a person) from getting his fair share of something” and “to get by cheating, robbing, tricking, etc.”

The current verb “lurch,” origin unknown, is “to roll, pitch or sway suddenly forward or to one side” or “to stagger.” It also can be a noun for such movement.

The third “lurch,” also considered archaic, came from the French “lourche,” a 16th-century game like backgammon. The English noun “lurch” was specific to “a situation in certain card games, in which the winner has more than double the score of the loser.”

This is the “lurch” that survives only in the phrase “leave someone in the lurch,” that is, “in a difficult situation” or “in trouble and needing help.”

Unfortunately, when someone is left in the lurch these days, it usually isn’t just a game.

Entry Filed under: set phrases, definitions, word origins