Lush
late Middle English: perhaps an alteration of obsolete lash ‘soft, lax’, from Old French lasche ‘lax’, by association with luscious.
wiktionary
From Middle English lusch(“slack, relaxed, limp, loose”), from Old English *lysc, lesc(“slack; limp”), from Proto-Germanic *laskwaz(“weak, false, feeble”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēy-(“to let; leave behind”). Akin to Old English lysu, lesu(“false, evil, base”), Middle Low German lasch(“slack”), Middle High German erleswen(“to become weak”), Old Norse lǫskr(“weak, feeble”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍃𐌹𐍅𐍃( lasiws, “weak, feeble”), Middle Low German las, lasich(“slack, languid, idle”), Low German lusch(“loose”). Doublet of lusk. More at lishey, lazy.
Perhaps a humorous use of the preceding word, or perhaps from Shelta lush(“food and drink”) [1] (the sense "liquor" is older than the sense "drinker"). The Century Dictionary wrote that it was "said to be so called from one Lushington, a once well-known London brewer", but the Online Etymology Dictionary considers lushington(“drinker”) a humorous extension of lush instead. [2]
etymonline
lush (adj.)
mid-15c., "lax, flaccid, soft, tender" (obsolete or dialectal), from Old French lasche "soft, loose, slack, negligent, cowardly," from laschier "loosen," from Late Latin laxicare "become shaky," related to Latin laxare "loosen," from laxus "loose" (from PIE root *sleg- "be slack, be languid"). The main modern sense of the word, with reference to plant life, "luxuriant in growth," is first attested c. 1600, in Shakespeare. Related: Lushly; lushness.
lush (n.)
"drunkard," 1890, from earlier slang meaning "liquor" (1790, especially in phrase lush ken "alehouse"), of obscure origin; perhaps a humorous use of lush (adj.) or from a word in Romany or Shelta (tinkers' jargon). It also was a verb, "to drink heavily" (1811).
LUSHEY. Drunk. The rolling kiddeys had a spree, and got bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure, and got very drunk. ["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
Hence also Lushington humorous generic name for a tippler (1823). It was an actual surname.
