The word for today is…

hustle (verb) – 1. To move or act energetically.
2. To push or force one’s way.
3. To act aggressively, especially in business dealings.
4. (Slang) (a) To obtain something by deceitful or illicit means; practice theft or swindling.
(b) To solicit customers. Used of a pimp or prostitute.
(c) To misrepresent one’s ability in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.

(noun) – 1. The act or an instance of jostling or shoving.
2. Energetic activity; drive.
3. (Slang) An illicit or unethical way of doing business or obtaining money; a fraud or deceit.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : 1680s, “to shake to and fro” (especially of money in a cap, as part of a game called hustle-cap), metathesized from Dutch hutselen, husseln “to shake, to toss,” frequentative of hutsen, variant of hotsen “to shake.” “The stems hot-, hut- appear in a number of formations in both High and Low German dialects, all implying a shaking movement” [OED]. Related: Hustled; hustling. Meaning “push roughly, shove” first recorded 1751. Intransitive sense “bustle, work busily, move quickly” is from 1821.

The key-note and countersign of life in these cities [of the U.S. West] is the word “hustle.” We have caught it in the East. but we use it humorously, just as we once used the Southern word “skedaddle,” but out West the word hustle is not only a serious term, it is the most serious in the language. [Julian Ralph, “Our Great West,” N.Y., 1893]

Sense of “to get in a quick, illegal manner” is 1840 in American English; that of “to sell goods aggressively” is 1887.

Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...