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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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waffles in email? do you have to wait for the little light to go out before you can open them?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
And don't they tend to gunk up the insides of your computer?
callithump, here's a warning for you: there are great differences between how British and Americans use some words. In Britain, waffle is apparently used as a verb, meaning that someone thinks first one way, then another ("No. Yes. No. Yes. Maybe.") I have never heard it used that way here in the U.S.; here, it is used only as a noun; it is a breakfast treat, something like a pancake.
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Sep 2004
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Max, I understood your point immediately. And certainly didn't mean to disagree with your point.Such deference, Wordwind. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 86
journeyman
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journeyman
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oh, good grief
How did "grief" ever become a "good" thing, I wonder.
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member
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member
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Jackie, I have heard "waffled" in the US as a verb... just fairly recently, mostly alluding to politicians.
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Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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I, too, have heard 'waffle' used as a verb for a very long time here in Virginia--at least, oh, thirty years. Maybe, Jackie, in Kentucky you have such a high quality of waffles, you don't permit any other meaning of the word to uproot its place!
And M.Webster's documents it as a verb here in the USA:
Main Entry: 2waffle
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): waf·fled; waf·fling /-f(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: frequentative of obsolete woff to yelp, of imitative origin
1 : EQUIVOCATE, VACILLATE; also : YO-YO, FLIP-FLOP
2 : to talk or write foolishly : BLATHER <can waffle... tiresomely off the point -- Times Literary Supplement>
- waf·fler /-f(&-)l&r/ noun
But why would waffling in email be so prevalent?
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
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Here in the true south we do not use the plebeian word waffle. We use the French word. Just recently I heard one of our good old boys say about a politician: He crepped all over the stage. At least I am sure that must have been what he meant.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thats funny TEd. The French word for waffle is gaufre. Une crępe is a pancake.
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Okay, okay, I shoulda said mainly. I have seen it used, yes, usually referring to politicians; but I have never heard a single person say it as a verb.
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