"waxing" reminds me of ancient gag by one of the Marx brothers or one of their friends making fun of archaic "wax" meaning to grow, in a cliché "wax wroth" meaning "become angry". Something like this: " They all waxed Roth, until he got mad and waxed them all."
I didn't bother trying to find exact quote, it's too old.
Surprise! I did look, and found this,
Fraught thought: In the
Marx Brothers' movie
Horse Feathers,a
secretary says: "The
dean is furious. He's
waxing wroth." To
which Groucho
responds: "Is Roth out
there too? Tell Roth to
wax the dean for a
while." The question
today is: What's
waxing? (Old word for
"growing" - now usually
means "putting wax on
e.g. floor, legs -T.)
