One of my pet peeves! I agree with the OP; I say “waiting for.” But I’ve worked with many people who say “waiting on.” For example, we had to assign some work order statuses and someone chose “waiting on approval,” which I tried to correct to “waiting for approval,” but I eventually had to give up. I guess a lot of people think “waiting on” is OK, or they can’t tell the difference, or they don’t care.
And yet, to me, if you are waiting on the bus then you are physically on the bus perhaps waiting for it to set off.
Ah. That’s yet another way to use “on”! In that case, “on” is part of “on the bus” not part of “waiting on”.
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/06/waiting-on.html
Another source, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) has an interesting thought: “One reason for the continuing use of wait on may lie in its being able to suggest protracted or irritating waits better than wait for. ”
The dictionary gives several examples to support this idea, including one from Charles Lindbergh: “for two days I’ve been waiting on the weather.”
I’m tempted to make a comparison to another use of on, the “on me,” like in “my dog died on me.”
As someone who says “waiting on” all the time, I wouldn’t use “waiting for” by itself in that situation. I’d only use “I’m waiting for the bus” to mean I’m waiting for it to arrive. The same is true if I say I’m waiting for a person. I could maybe say “I’m waiting for the bus to leave,” but not just “I’m waiting for the bus.”
However, “I’m waiting on the bus” would be ambiguous, and would not imply any location. It could mean I’m waiting on the bus to arrive, so I can leave. It could mean I’m waiting on the bus to leave because I’m inside it. It could mean I’m waiting on the bus to move out of the way.
If I wanted to indicate location, I’d need extra words. I could say “I’m waiting here on the bus”–though that is still a bit ambiguous. “I’m waiting inside the bus” is probably the least ambiguous.
Per @Andy_L’s cite, I do agree that “waiting for” seems to be more passive to me, while “waiting on” seems more active. If I’m waiting for a phone call, that implies I’m going about my day, doing what I would normally do, while expecting a phone call. If I’m waiting on an phone call, that implies that I’m being held up and need the phone call to occur before I can continue with my day.
However, the line is fuzzy. I would still sometimes wait for a person, even if said waiting is holding me up. It just implies the wait has not gotten to the point of being annoying (yet).
We ride on a bus or boat, but we ride in a car.
Do we ride in an airplane or on an airplane?
In English, we are at the supermarket or at the office.
In Hebrew, we are in the supermarket or in the office.
In American English, we are in the hospital, but at school or college.
A house may be in the middle of the street. But can a railroad be in the middle of a house?
There’s a great big door in the front of the house,
There’s a little old door in the back.
But we can’t have doors in the middle of the house,
'Cause that’s the railroad track.
In the Middle of the House
The phrase I heard so often growing up was “waiting dinner on you”. It doesn’t get better with the simple change to “waiting dinner for you”.
To me, these have VERY different meanings (as I am sure someone has already mentioned- I read this far and decided to reply).
Waiting on customers means bringing people food and cocktails or pie and coffee depending upon setting.
Waiting for customers means staring out the window of an empty establishment wishing the rain would stop so someone would come in and order something and then leave a big fat tip!
I was “waiting on” my friend Jack who is going to “try and” fix the leaking pipe.
OR:
I was “waiting for” my friend Jack who was going to “try to” fix the leaking pipe.
According to John Denver, it’s on.
Seems to me that if you can stand up while travelling, it’s “on”, but if you have to sit it’s “in”. So I’m leaving on a jet plane if it’s a 757 and in a jet plane if it’s an F-15.
And however many times you point this out…
Yes, it’s frustrating how other people don’t grasp that their dialect of English is wrong, and yours is correct, isn’t it? What’s even more frustrating is how all those foreigners won’t abandon their incomprehensible languages and switch to English. Maybe they can’t tell the difference? Or they just don’t care.
From the Oxford English dictionary:
“To Wait On or Upon”
9. To remain in one place in expectation of = to wait for at sense 7a. Also, more generally, to wait for ( 5b).
1694 tr. F. Martens Voy. Spitzbergen 7 in Narbrough’s Acct. Several Late Voy. We were forced to wait on him above half an hour, before he came from underneath the Ice.
1817 W. Sewall Diary 2 May (1930) 14/1 I proceeded to the Academy and agreed to enter there upon condition that the Professor would wait on me until the next winter.
1865 O. L. Jackson Colonel’s Diary (1922) 227 We have been waiting on the pay department.
1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps vi. 135 He…raised his placid eyebrows and waited on me to speak.
1931 Amer. Speech 7 20 Wait on , wait for, the Biblical sense. ‘When I got there, John was waiting on me.’ (Widespread.)
1955 F. O’ Connor Wise Blood v. 85 He…darted after Hazel Motes. ‘Wait on me!’ he shouted.
1960 Observer 7 Feb. 13/4 The nation waits on the railwaymen, to see if there will be a strike or not.
1984 P. Turnbull Big Money ix. 153 ‘I was just waiting on you two coming back.’ He stood and reached for his coat.
Thesaurus »
10. To attend as or in the manner of a servant to the personal requirements of; to minister to the comfort of. †Also in phrases, to wait on the cup, the trencher, the table (cf. 9b). to wait on (a person) hand and foot : see to wait on (also wait upon, serve) (a person) (†to) hand and foot at hand n. Phrases 6a(b).
1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII c. 14 §1 No servyng manne waytyng uppon his maister…were eny garded Hose.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Wayte on the cup, ad cyathos stare .
a 1557 J. Cheke tr. Gospel St. Matthew (1843) iv. 11 Then let ye devel him go, and lo angels cam vnto him and waited on him.
1575 G. Gascoigne Glasse of Gouernem. iv. v. sig. Iiii Wee should haue beene fayne to wayte on the table, and to bee contented with their leauings after supper.
1602 Kyd’s Spanish Trag. (new ed.) ii. sig. D3v His Maiestie the other day did grace him With waiting on his cup.
1605 N. Breton I pray you be not Angrie sig. Cv To spende my time…onely for…waighting on a Trencher, looking on a faire House.
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 80 When they grow old, they most grow contemptible, being put to do the drudgeries of the house, and many times to waite on their children.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. vii. xv. 135 ‘It is not my business,’ answered the Drawer, ‘to wait upon the Chambers…’ ‘If you come to that,’ answered the Maid, ‘it is not my business to wait upon Gentlemen.’ View more context for this quotation
1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest I. iv. 56 You can have no servants to wait upon you.
1865 Mrs. H. Wood Mildred Arkell I. xi When I was only six years old I had to wait on Mamma and Charlotte.
1901 T. J. Alldridge Sherbro xii. 114 He is waited upon hand and foot.
Change it to “awaiting approval” and everyone will be happy.
Same here. I recall picturing it that way when I heard it (I was a child then, though, I admit).
Also, after reading the opening post, I though of the song “Waitin’ on Joe” - haven’t heard it in years, and didn’t particularly care for it, but the usage never seemed odd to me.
An abomination. But “a-waiting on” would be acceptable.
Good thing I was waiting for Godot. He’s a horrible tipper!
My sister (we’re from the Boston suburbs) likes to tell a story about working as a waitress in Nashville, TN, and a young local guy she was waiting on kept asking if she wanted him to “wait on” her. She took it as some sort of weak joke. She was surprised when she found him outside the diner at quitting time, expecting her to go home with him (uh-uh). That’s how she learned one particular idiom.