In time, the mental picture of a reptile lying on a rock in the sun superseded the meaning of the penny-pinching lecher. Laziness, without the overlay of stinginess, appeared in such words as dillydallier, lotus-eater, goldbrick and, one of my favorite Americanisms, lollygagger. Synonymous phrases were parlor snake and chairwarmer, but the alliteration and z sound in lounge lizard won out, especially with the later, second meaning of one who hangs out in cocktail lounges. I did not realize it at the time, but lounge lizard was a phrase coined around 1912 to refer not to the merely lazy but to the stingily lascivious: the person being derogated was a young cheapskate who tried to pet in a girl's parlor without first taking her out and springing for a soda and a movie.

This meant I was being told to go out and get some fresh air, or get a job, or do something otherwise active and edifying.

THERE I WAS, LYING on my back, bubble gum wadded in my cheek, a copy of ''Sheena, Queen of the Jungle'' held before my deliciously shocked eyes, ready to yell the fa-vorite comic-book sound, ''Aieeeee!'' as the muscular maiden pounced on some unsuspecting leopard, when my mother appeared at the doorway like a Neil Simon heroine to pronounce the awful imprecation: ''Lounge lizard!''

Lounge lizard definition