There are words we need to borrow from other languages. From Yiddish, that word of the day is “luftmensch”. “Luftmensch” comes from “luft” and “mentsh”. “Luft” is a Germanic root meaning “air”. This word is also related to the English words, “loft” and “lofty”. And “mensch” is from the German word for “human being.”
“Luftmensch” was first introduced to English prose in 1907, from Israel Zangwill’s Luftmensch, from the following passage: “It was then that the word ‘Luftmensch’ flew into Barstein’s mind. Nehemiah was not an earth-man in gross contact with solidities. He was an air-man, floating on facile wings through the æther. True, he spoke of troublesome tribulations, but these were mainly dictionary distresses, felt most keenly in the rhapsody of literary composition. At worst they were mere clouds on the blue. They had nothing in common with the fogs which frequently veiled heaven from his own vision.”
In essence,
a luftmensch is an impractical, contemplative person having no definite
business or income, a day dreamer with no plans.
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