Sailors coasted by hugging the shoreline. Office workers coast by hugging the minimum.
The verb coast entered English from the Old French coste, meaning rib or side, which derived from the Latin costa. By the fourteenth century, coast referred to the side or edge of the land along the sea. To coast, in its earliest nautical usage, meant to sail along the shoreline rather than venturing into open water.1
The meaning shifted in the nineteenth century when coasting came to describe downhill movement without effort, as in a sled coasting down a hill or a bicycle coasting without pedaling. The metaphor of moving forward on momentum, without active exertion, was established by the early twentieth century.2
In workplace contexts, coasting describes an employee who maintains minimum acceptable performance without initiative, growth, or ambition. The term carries judgment. A person who coasts is not failing. They are succeeding just enough to avoid consequences.
A 2023 Gallup survey found that 59 percent of employees worldwide described themselves as "quiet quitting," a term that overlaps significantly with coasting. These workers met their job descriptions but did not go beyond them, investing neither extra effort nor emotional energy.3
The Latin costa that produced the word also produced the English words accost (to approach from the side), intercostal (between the ribs), and the French côte (hillside, as in the Côte d'Azur). A word that began describing the edge of land and sea now describes the edge of effort, the line between doing enough and doing nothing at all.4