Digression from Podophyllum : pfaffing about

[Maggi Young]

This split off from a pdodphyllum thread......



Maggi wrote:......... 'Still a pfaff but easier than getting to the foot of the page and scrolling for these large pix.'

McMark wrote: 'By the way Maggi, I had no idea about what "pfaff" meant.  It appears to be British slang, and an alternate spelling for "faff". Huh Roll Eyes

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pfaff
(British, slang) Alternative spelling of faff.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/faff

perhaps more universally used:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kludge '




maggi wrote:

Learning new words all the time, as well as all the other gems offered in these pages, eh?!!

I hope that the comments from myself and McMark are useful
however.....
the main instruction remains, please keep photos to a maximum of 760 pixels wide for the forum!!

[TheOnionMan]

Learning new words all the time, as well as all the other gems offered in these pages, eh?!!

Yes Maggi, always like learning new words and associated etymology.  It seems however, faff and pfaff don't actually have the "workaround" or "kludge" sense, at least not in the two references I cited, but it has more to do with wasting time on an unproductive activity... I think I'm pfaffing around all day   At the bottom of the "faff" link, just noticed they give the more vulgar American equivalent, to "dick around", which indeed has a strong connotation of "wasting time" on a useless activity. Of course, my current activity of writing this has absolutely nothing to do with Podophyllum

[Lesley Cox]

Here we go, off topic again, but Maggi is very tolerant.

"Pfaff" is occasionally used here with the word "off" and means, to all intents and purposes "b....r off." In fact, I'll probably use it next time someone phones (as I'm cooking dinner) wanting to sell time-share on Australia's Gold Coast.

[Maggi Young]

Interestingly here, as evidenced  on record by HRH the Princess Anne, as I recall, the phrase used as Lesley describes is to " Naff off"

.... okay, when I've got a minute I'll split of the digression! 

[Lesley Cox]

You're right Maggi. Got my Pfs and my Ns mixed.

[TheOnionMan]

Hi Maggi,  I see you've started this new thread off with yet another slang term:  "digressio"    (see title of 4 messages above)

[Maggi Young]

How strange... it was fine in the title post...... grumblin' gremlins in my system, eh?
 

I was just having a think about some other words that are (I only recently discovered) Scottish .... I fondly imagined them to be standard English....
timeous / timeously and outwith  


Use as in:...... it was vital to have the contract signed timeously .....
meaning ..... it was vital to have the contract signed in a timely manner....
 or .....the plant was unknown outwith the confines of the castle....
meaning.... the plant was unknown outside of the confines of the castle

 I had  no notion these were Scots words... the first is seemingly used also in South Africa, too.... a lot of Scots lawyers over there, I suppose... it is often found (though not exclusivley) used in legal documents as indeed is the second.
Wonderful world, isn't it?