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From: Chris Elvidge <chris@mshome.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: To waffle, 'to waver, to vacillate, to equivocate, to dither'
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:44:30 +0100
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On 26/04/2024 at 08:26, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> 
>   Ar an séú lá is fiche de mí Aibreán, scríobh Steve Hayes:
> 
>   > On Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:19:58 +0100, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
>   > wrote:
>   >
>   > >
>   > > 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.’
>   >
>   > Ah, I didn't read it like that. I might have done so if the comma
>   > after "waffle" had been replaced by a colon.
>   >
>   > > > >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 in the driver of a car on a multilane highway being unable to
>   > decide which lane they want to drive in, and holding up the following
>   > traffic while they try to decide?
> 
> For example!
> 
> Another really common one comes up when a consulting firm (e.g. Accenture) is
> hired. The people hiring the consulting firm are the managers of the relevant
> business, and their job as managers is to understand and to assess the
> conditions of their business and to make decisions based on that understanding
> and that assessment, in order to improve their business. They are hiring the
> consulting firm to understand and to assess their business and to come up with
> decisions based on that understanding and assessment in order that the business
> can be improved ...
> 

Consultant: Someone who borrows your watch and uses it to tell you what 
time it is.


-- 
Chris Elvidge, England
I WILL NOT PRESCRIBE MEDICATION