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Tuesday 21 June 2011

Thing To Do Today: waft.

Ah, there's nothing like a good waft.

You could put on a dress of shimmering silk and waft along gracefully, perhaps.

Or perhaps not.

You could carry a posy of perfume-wafting roses, or wear a carnation in your button hole.






A chemist faced with something nasty will waft his hand through the air above the stuff so he can get an idea of its smell without risking a real nose-blaster.
Or, if at sea, you could hoist a waft, which is a furled flag which, like musical notation, conveys its message by its position.
Hope you have a fragrant day!

Thing To Do Today: waft. This word comes from wafter, which was an armed ship used to guard convoys.
Wafter comes from the Middle Dutch words wachter and wachten, which are to do with guarding, but the word seems to have got mixed up with the Scots and Northern English word waff, a gust of air, somewhere along the way.

2 comments:

  1. I have wafted, in the nautical sense, on Twitter, telling all 136 of my followers (makes me sound like a mystic or something!) to visit this site. Let's hope they don't all pitch up at the same time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh no, Adele, it'd be wonderful to see every last man-jack of them. This is a den with elastic walls...

    Boiiinnngggg!

    ReplyDelete

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