In the wake of the recession, countless Americans — particularly student loan-laden, underemployed millennials — stitched together a livable wage from a patchwork quilt of income streams. From the rot of the Great Recession, the gig economy bloomed, and alongside it, a curious kind of slang creeped into our collective vernacular and lodged itself there firmly. “Side-hustle,” which first entered our language via African-American newspapers in the ’50s, became a slick, hashtaggable shorthand for “working my ass off, often in addition to a full-time job, just so I can make rent and maybe cover my car payment too.”
https://www.racked.com/2017/9/13/16255060/mlms-gig-economy-hustle/