Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Aidan Kehoe Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: To waffle, 'to waver, to vacillate, to equivocate, to dither' Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:19:58 +0100 Lines: 28 Message-ID: <87zfthluq9.fsf@parhasard.net> References: <874jbqlz6d.fsf@parhasard.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net 53YMZHsDN2NYkzgqGy03eQOgF1/ibtMxvNk/iSvRU6yrgSApfq Cancel-Lock: sha1:kvyKIxU8RbyQbk/L0MlKCDbI6JA= sha1:MkPUU9heUlkLhBMZOQgnAoE02CY= sha256:r8HthNsVKQfQoqZ868kxcJnE+oH+Toi8Uv6m+i//sNQ= User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64) Bytes: 1924 Ar an cúigiú lá is fiche de mí Aibreán, scríobh Steve Hayes: > >Speaking (in sci.lang) of Andy Grove, he uses waffle in the above sense in > >his good, well-edited ‘High Output Management.’ In my youth I would only > >have used or understood the word in the meaning ‘to ramble on, to say > >nothing of much consequence,’ and OED2 documents that the > >fail-to-make-a-decision sense is colloquial or non-standard. > > What is the "above" sense? The one in the subject, ‘to waver, to vacillate, to equivocate, to dither.’ > I see no sense "above". > > >I presume I have misunderstood various Americans over the years in not > >picking up on the ‘dither’ meaning. How universal is that meaning over > >there? > > For what values of "that"? “Dither,” to fail to make a decision when making a decision would be appropriate. -- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)