Today's Word "Wafture"
Published in Vocabulary
wafture \WAHF-tyUr or WAHF-shUr\ (noun) - 1 : A wave, a waving motion, as of the hand or of an object in the hand; 2 : the act of being carried gently and bobbingly on the air or water.
In 'Julius Caesar' (II, 1) Shakespeare writes, "yet you answer'd not, but, with an angry wafture of your hand, gave sign for me to leave."
The general wisdom is that today's word is a back-formation from wafter "convoy ship" from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German wachter "a guard" from wachten "to guard." This would make it a relative of Old English waccan "to watch," progenitor of current "watch." We find it more likely a noun from the ancestor of "wave," Old English "wafian," with the suffix ter, also found in "laughter" (also after an [f] sound). We do know that the word was originally "wafter" which meant "to wave" in some dialects. "Wave," now, is a cousin of "weave," "wafer," and "waffle," semantically much closer to the meaning of today's word.
Comments