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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2010Wafting
From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: "During the last couple of decades, scientists poring over satellite images have noticed several large icebergs breaking up as they wafted along a particular stretch of the Antarctic coast." When they say "large iceberg" they mean something the size of Connecticut that is hitting an underwater ridge whose peaks reach only to 215 meters below the surface. Can such an object reasonably be described as "wafting along"?  SignatureJohn Varela > From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Can such an object reasonably be described as "wafting along"? I don't see what's wrong with "drifted," or even "floated." But I agree that something that substantial cannot "waft." --Jeff SignatureLove consists of overestimating the differences between one woman and another. --George Bernard Shaw >From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Can such an object reasonably be described as "wafting along"? That's not how I'd descibe the motion of an iceberg. Dictionary definitions of "waft" use the words "lightly" and "gently". An iceberg might appear to be moving lightly and gently until it meets something at which point things become heavy and rough. Perhaps "glide" would be better than "waft". SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) >>From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: >> [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > >Perhaps "glide" would be better than "waft". Lots of words would be better than "waft"! If the icebergs were very small, and were moving up and down with the motion of the waves, you might say "bobbing along". But large icebergs don't really "bob". "Glide" is maybe not the word to use. Although it suggests a smooth, steady motion, a "glide" also needs to be fairly fast (and icebergs usually move very slowly). I vote for "drift". SignatureIan > >>From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > >> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > > Lots of words would be better than "waft"! To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" Indicates that the speaker is just a bit daft. SignatureBob Lieblich With thanks to Ambrose Bierce >> >>From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: >> >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" > Indicates that the speaker is just a bit daft. Do watf and daft rhyme in your dialect? Ray OHara filted: >> To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" >> Indicates that the speaker is just a bit daft. > >Do watf and daft rhyme in your dialect? "Be kind to your friends in the swamp Where the weather is cold and damp." -- unpublished lyrics to "The Stars & Stripes Forever" ....r SignatureMe? Sarcastic? Yeah, right. > Ray OHara filted: >>> To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" >>> Indicates that the speaker is just a bit daft. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Where the weather is cold and damp." > -- unpublished lyrics to "The Stars & Stripes Forever" I know that as: Be kind to your web-footed friends For that duck might be somebody's mother ... SignatureSkitt (SF Bay Area) http://come.to/skitt >> Ray OHara filted: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Be kind to your web-footed friends > For that duck might be somebody's mother ... ..somebody's grandma.." in the version I was taught. And now I have STS with a vengeance! SignatureLaura (emulate St. George for email) > > Ray OHara filted: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Be kind to your web-footed friends > For that duck might be somebody's mother ... Be kind to our web-footed friends For a duck may be somebody's mother. She lives all alone in a swamp Where the weather's always damp. If you think that this is the end Well it isn't 'cause there is another chorus Be kind to our web-footed friends Because a duck may be somebody else's mother! In the above, "damp" is deliberately mispronounced to rhyme with "swamp". Houston YMCA Camp, Wimberley, Texas, 1951. SignatureJohn Varela > > > Ray OHara filted: > > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > "swamp". > Houston YMCA Camp, Wimberley, Texas, 1951. Or: Be kind to our fine feathered friends SignatureJohn Varela >> Ray OHara filted: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Be kind to your web-footed friends > For that duck might be somebody's mother ... The version I learned included both of those. The tune is the chorus to Stars and Stripes Forever. Be kind to your web-footed friends For that duck might be somebody's mother Be kind to your friends of the swamp Where the weather is cold and damp (pronounced to rhyme with "swamp") Now you might think this is the end Well, it is ... It ends in mid-phrase, which, if you aren't expecting it, is a shock. Bill in Kentucky >>> Ray OHara filted: >>>>> To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Now you might think this is the end > Well, it is ... or: Now you may think this is the end And it is, but to prove I'm a liar, I'll just sing it over again, Only this time a little bit higher. (Da capo one octave higher) SignatureJames > >> Ray OHara filted: > > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > It ends in mid-phrase, which, if you aren't expecting it, is a shock. I remember that now. It came after one or two instances of "It isn't 'cause there is another chorus." SignatureJohn Varela > I remember that now. It came after one or two instances of "It isn't > 'cause there is another chorus." I always wondered why nobody could fill in the remaining two lines after that. Finally I learn it's because they weren't sung! The Homer & Jethro recording "Crazy Mixed Up Song" is here, with surtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Jp6o6D-UI I had heard or read most of the words to this in bits and pieces, but I don't think I'd ever heard the whole song before. Wikipedia gives the words as sung at the end of "Sing Along With Mitch": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_Stripes_Forever#Other_lyrics That version can be seen and heard here, starting around 8:20: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ5GwzvkN-k I wonder if there's some other familiar recording that has "Oh" at the start of the first and third lines. ¬R >>> Ray OHara filted: >> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > It ends in mid-phrase, which, if you aren't expecting it, is a shock. Apparently it reached me after a couple games of telephone, to wit: Be kind to your web-footed friends, For a duck may be somebody's mother. Who lives in the fields or the swamp, Where the weather is cold and damp. Now you may think that this is the end, Well, it is but I'll sing it again... After another repeat or two it would end at the "is" in the last line. --Jeff SignatureLove consists of overestimating the differences between one woman and another. --George Bernard Shaw > "Robert Lieblich" wrote > > To describe the motion of an iceberg with "waft" > > Indicates that the speaker is just a bit daft. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Do watf and daft rhyme in your dialect? How do you pronounce "watf"? I think I'll give Bierce the last word: The electric light invades The dunnest deep of Hades. Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!" SignatureBob Lieblich Thanks, again, 'Brose >>>> >From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: >>>>> "During the last couple of decades, scientists poring over satellite [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Do watf and daft rhyme in your dialect? Not mine, but they do in older style RP. SignatureMike Page Google me at port.ac.uk if you need to send an email. > From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Can such an object reasonably be described as "wafting along"? Strangely enough, OED documents a long history of "waft" and its nautical connections, now obsolete, as well as the modern usage: ?1. trans. To convoy (a ship or fleet of ships, persons sailing). Obs. 1513 W. Gonson in Lett. & Papers War France (1897) 130 A letter+in the wyche he comaundyth me thatt+I shall conducte and wafftt hys vytellars to hys grett army in the water of Brest. I+made hys Grace answer+I wolld go my sellfe in the smallist of the 3 Spanyards sentt fforthe wit me+and leffe John Ysame and Rychiard Barkeley in the other 2 Spanyiarde shyps to waftt over the Zeland fleett. ... 1670 J. Smith Eng. Improv. Reviv'd 270 The Fishermen agreed amongst themselves to pay a Dollar upon every last of Herrings, towards the maintenance of certain Ships of Warr, to Waft and secure them in their Fishing. ?b. transf. To guide or direct the course of (a vessel, a swimmer, a floating object, etc.). Obs. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 360 A little Fish, that swimming still before, Directs him [the Whale]+: Much like a Childe that loving leads about His aged Father when his eyes be out: Still wafting him through every way so right. 2. To convey safely by water; to carry over or across a river, sea, etc. Obs. exc. poet. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. i. 114, I go of Message from the Queene to France: I charge thee waft me safely crosse the Channell. 1593 I 3 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 253. Ibid. v. vii. 41 Away with her, and waft her hence to France. ... 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative 27 They, taking the advantage of a low tide, either waded over+or else wafted themselves over upon small Rafts of timber. b. Of the sea or waves: To carry, transport. Obs. exc. poet. 1613 Day Festivals v. (1615) 129 Now the Red-Sea of Baptisme+hath conveyed us, and waft us over. ... 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion ii. iii. 69 The waves of earth are wafting to and fro The ashes of great lives. ?c. intr. To sail about, off, to and fro, up and down; to cross over by water. Obs. a1562 G. Cavendish Wolsey (Kelmscott Press) 150 Ther was no lesse than a thousand botts+waffetyng uppe and down in Temmes, expectyng my lord's departyng. ... 1774 Beattie Minstrel ii. xlix, He braves The surge and tempest,+And to a happier land wafts merrily away! 1814 Capt. Scobell Jrnl. of the 'Thais' in Tuckey's Narr. Exped. R. Zaire (1818) Introd. p. xiii, I met several floating islands+which+wafting to the motion of the sea, rushed far into the ocean. It's apparently a back formation from 'wafter' which (from Dutch or LG 'wachter') was an armed vessel used as convoy or the commander of same. SignatureJohn Dean Oxford >> From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: >> [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > John Ysame and Rychiard Barkeley in the other 2 Spanyiarde shyps to waftt > over the Zeland fleett. That's almost English. I can only guess what "vytellars" are. <snip> > It's apparently a back formation from 'wafter' which (from Dutch or LG > 'wachter') was an armed vessel used as convoy or the commander of same. And hopefully never came near an iceberg even then. --Jeff SignatureLove consists of overestimating the differences between one woman and another. --George Bernard Shaw Jeffrey Turner filted: >> ?1. trans. To convoy (a ship or fleet of ships, persons sailing). Obs. >> 1513 W. Gonson in Lett.& Papers War France (1897) 130 A letter+in the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >That's almost English. I can only guess what "vytellars" are. First thought: "victuallers"...he's going to escort the lunch wagon....r SignatureMe? Sarcastic? Yeah, right. > Jeffrey Turner filted: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > First thought: "victuallers"...he's going to escort the lunch > wagon....r I'd go with that. Though the wagons are actually ships SignatureJohn Dean Oxford John Dean filted: >> Jeffrey Turner filted: >>> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >I'd go with that. Though the wagons are actually ships Yeah, I was doing the analogy thing...before settling on "lunch wagon", I toyed with "roach coach" and "catering truck"....r SignatureMe? Sarcastic? Yeah, right. > > From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > > [quoted text clipped - 55 lines] > It's apparently a back formation from 'wafter' which (from Dutch or LG > 'wachter') was an armed vessel used as convoy or the commander of same. If it ever was, that meaning of 'wachter' is quite obsolete in Dutch too, for schips, Jan >From the July 17 issue of /Science News/, page 15: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >Can such an object reasonably be described as "wafting along"? Maybe that's the way it looks on satellite images. Maybe it looks like a cloud. Maybe they're being humorous. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years |
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