Re: faff (was: English notation)

While the subject of British verbs unknown in the US has come up, I can
take the oppurtunity to get a solution to another mystery.

My wife and I are fans of the show "Junkyard Wars" / "Scrapheap Challange"
(I think thats waht it is called over there). On the show they use the
word "Bodge" frequently. This word was not in my lexicon before the show.

Can someone enlighten me as to the meaning, origins, etc of this word.

Thanks

David Stokes

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Raymond Brown wrote:

> 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]
> =========================================
>

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