Fooster
To bustle about ineptly. To fidget at a task. To make a great show of doing something without making much progress. 'He's been foostering with the boiler for an hour and it's no warmer.' As a noun: a state of fussy bustle.
Etymology
From Irish 'fústar' (= fuss, bustle, agitation), with the Irish vowel preserved. The Hiberno-English form added the agent-suffix possibilities ('foosterer', 'foostery') without changing the core meaning. Attested in print from at least 1894, when an Irish-flavoured story in a Dickens publication had the line 'he wouldn't spind so much time foosthering about with thim little hins.'
In a sentence
"Stop foostering with that drawer, the runner's broken - we'll get a new one."
Historical notes
Fooster covers a particular kind of inefficient activity that standard English splits across 'fuss', 'fiddle', 'mess about', and 'tinker'. None of those carries the same blend of effort and lack of result. The foosterer is busy; the foosterer means well; the foosterer is going to be at it all afternoon. The word has a distinctly affectionate register - calling someone a foosterer is closer to a fond complaint than an insult.
Alternate spellings
foosther
Sources
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry fústar. · dictionary
- Charles Dickens (ed.), Kattie's Wedding (1894). · academic