Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Steve Hayes Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: To waffle, 'to waver, to vacillate, to equivocate, to dither' Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:55:50 +0200 Organization: Khanya Publications Lines: 26 Message-ID: References: <874jbqlz6d.fsf@parhasard.net> Reply-To: hayesstw@yahoo.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:54:43 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="d03a17e21a930e5b2629facb99309b95"; logging-data="3047515"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19pl7k/uDbNbHAE4qs3tpeNXp/GP/4PEhk=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:OtCIAQBexFYLaMczvU7rSuTrZrM= X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 2.0/32.652 Bytes: 1890 On Thu, 25 Apr 2024 07:43:54 +0100, Aidan Kehoe wrote: > >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? 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"? -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk