“Waffled on” becoming a synonym of “wavered on”.
Has it always been the case in American English? I only noticed it this election cycle.
It’s certainly been that way for a long time, not just this year. Americans use waffled to mean indecisiveness, Brits mean talking at length about nothing interesting. Caused me some confusion before I worked it out.
Yeah, “waffle” has meant “waver” or “be indecisive” for a long time. The comic strip Doonesbury used a drawing of a waffle to depict Bill Clinton back in the 90s.
The sense of “going back and forth” was used in Canadian politics in the late 60s and early 70s, when a splinter group of lefties broke off from the already leftie NDP. The name apparently came from Ed Broadbent, a future leader of the NDP, who was critical of them:
That reminds me of another thing. “Just do X real fast” or “Just do a quick X”, when X is a process that has a standardized time table that cannot be hurried.
Or a process that’s so cobbled-together that no one has any idea how long it would take.
I’m not sure how that happened. I’d even checked to see if “cut and dried” or “cut and dry” was more appropriate.
Anyway, another one is “it’s just a joke!” It’s not that I took you literally; I simply
found you dumb or offensive.
Another usage complaint to flesh out this post: Not only are “accept” and “except” two distinct words, they are pretty close to being opposites. Please make sure you’ve chosen the right one!
Well, if you want to get into incorrect spelling (in speech, “accept” and “except” can be nearly indistinguishable), somewhere I saw two aggravating errors in close proximity. “Nothing phases them” and something about “the discord they have sewn”. Now, the first one is forgivable because of the exact homonym, but with the second, “sown” is, AFAICT, not the common form, “sowed” being preferred if only for clarity.
Als[quote=“wanderer2575, post:140, topic:923894, full:true”]
“Quick question.”
It’s never quick, and just ask the damn question!
[/quote]
Also, ‘can I ask you a question?’ Yeah just did, asshole.
Yes, why does everyone I meet always end every sentence the same way? “Move your car, asshole.” “Cash or credit, asshole?” “The approximate value of pi is 3.1415928, asshole.”
I get so tired of hearing it.
“I seen.”
“Where you at?”
I dunno, it might all be perfectly correct. Perhaps “discord” is also the name of a fabric, a byproduct of some manufacturing process. Perhaps they had more discord than they knew what to do with, and their phasers were ineffective at vaporizing this burdensome excess, so they decided to sew these durable waste fabrics into leisure wear. Certainly plausible, I think, for some unlikely value of “plausible”.
I really don’t think that one is fair. I used to go around popping into people’s offices with “just a quick question”, and it was often one that required no more than a one-word answer, “yes” or “no”. The “just a quick question” preamble is both a social nicety to avoid the abruptness of launching right into a factual inquiry, an implicit request for permission, and a statement that only a moment of time is being asked for.
If it is not, in fact, a quick question, but a complicated or loaded question, I would of course throw the bum out of my office. That is not acceptable.
There were, of course, some in this particular time and corporate culture who felt that instead of bothering them, I should have called a meeting. These were Dilbertian PHBs (Pointy Haired Boss types). I can see how some of these meetings might have played out:
Me: “I called this meeting to find out if the server we ordered last month has arrived”.
Person from Shipping & Receiving, among 25 attendees present, “No.”
Me: Thank you, and thank you all for coming. Anyone want some of these donuts?
I see that as the epitome of corporate efficiency!
Heh - only now came across thread - will read.
In the meantime, offering this.
I used to have a professor who would ramble on, lose his train of thought and awkwardly end the ramble with ‘and stuff and things and that.’ Later, I read a review of him on a ratemyprofessors.com type site and nearly spit my beer when I saw someone refer to him as ‘Professor Stufinthings.’
I just reply ‘What’s the question?’ Same for ‘Can I ask a favor?’ Better know what the favor is before agreeing to it.
But then you miss the opportunity to answer “Can I ask you a question?” with “Sure! Now, want to ask me another one?”
I can’t find the clip but I recall Star Trek’s Jordi Laforge himself responding to that question with “I think you just did”. Forcing Data to say “May I ask another question after this one?”.
But…I’m going to disagree. “May I ask you a question” is a trivial question to answer and gives the other person the chance to either say “Sure” or “Just a moment” or “I’m in the middle of something; can you give me 5 minutes?” or whatever.
Otherwise, what’s the alternative – I just launch into a question assuming the other person’s full attention for however long it takes to explain the question, and for them to think about the answer?
I just thought of another work-related one I get very often that drives me nuts:
“Here’s kind of a hot job I have for you.”
“OK, when do you need it?”
“ASAP”.
Arrrrrrrrrgh. ASAP, or As Soon As Possible, meaning, “whenever I’m able to open up some time from my current projects”, or “drop everything and work on it now, I need it within hours”? ASAP is about the most meaningless response to “when do you need it” there is, yet people say it all the time.
I had an acct. exec. (executive salesperson) storm into my office screaming about why her project wasn’t done… followed by The Big Boss who’d heard the commotion.
AE: I TOLD you I needed it ASAP!
Me: And I asked you what your deadline was…
AE: Yes, and I yelled “ASAP!” What part of As Possible do you not underSTAND?!?
Me: But I’ve got three jobs that have to get out today. American Family needs revisions by noon, ETC web site goes live at four, and Culver’s signage has to be at the printer by 7am. Those are hard deadlines, whereas yours doesn’t really have one.
Gathered multitude of rubberneckers: all nod.
BigBoss: He’s got you there, Susie…
AE: Sputters, storms off.
BigBoss: So, every time she complains about how slow the Creative Dept. is, it’s because she never gives you firm deadlines?
Gathered multitudes, in unison: Yep!
(and… she pulled that whole scenario again a month later. sigh…)
…
eta: Another reason why I’m so glad to be retired, and not in advertising any more.
I worked for a short while in the records department of that university hospital up on the hill, with the big row of vacuum tubes you put the carriers into and listened to the pinging as they shuttled off to where ever. “ASAP” was sometimes written on the requests, meaning that they needed it really soon. It was not as high a priority as “STAT”, but higher than no marking.