XPost: alt.usage.english
Tony Cooper wrote:
On Thu, 25 Apr 2024 07:43:54 +0100, Aidan Kehoe <[email protected]>
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.
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?
In my usage, to "waffle" is to provide a reply to a question or demand
that does not provide a specific response, acceptance, or denial.
To include the "ramble" meaning, I would use "waffle-on". The
response is extended, but with additional comments that don't clarify anything.
A classic waffle used by a parent to child's request or demand is
"We'll see". If the parent adds a number of conditions that may or
may not determine if the request or demand will be granted, the parent
has "waffled-on".
At least they haven't beaten around the bush or gone all around the houses.
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