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faff (was: English notation)

From:Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 3, 2001, 5:30
At 10:41 pm -0400 2/7/01, John Cowan wrote:
>And Rosta scripsit: > >> faff faf faf > >What is this "faff"? It is unknown to me and to m-w.com.
verb intransitive = "to fumble", "to dither". Often, tho not invariable, used with _about_, e.g. "Stop faffing, man!" "He was faffing about all the time." As And says, it's always, like "hassle", pronounced with [{] or [a] according to dialect, never with RP [A] which one might've expected. The verb is quite common in Britain, at least, and included in dictionaries as colloquialism. It's origin is unknown. Ray. ========================================= A mind which thinks at its own expense will always interfere with language. [J.G. Hamann 1760] =========================================

Replies

David Stokes <dstokes@...>
Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>