Word I knew, but had forgotten: havering, which means more or less the same as swithering (new word learnt last night on the front doorstep).
Both are Scottish (therefore better) ways of saying "pointless vascillation" crossed with "wittering pointlessly" but "havering" has a tiny hint of indecision about it, I believe, whereas "swithering" does not.
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I particularly like moithering (not sure if that is how it is spelled) but if I remember correctly it basically means whingeing but is more onomatopoeic
Swithering, and I'm sure this is why you learned the word, is the title of the poetry collection by Robin Robertson that just won this year's Forward Prize. The whole book is awash with Celtic conceits.
I say conceits rather than themes, still reading the book, I must think why I say that. I think it can be a dangerous strategy, like Dylan Thomas' Welshness - for which the Welsh have not thanked him overly.
No no! We were not talking about poetry! We were standing a doorstep talking about gentleman callers and booze! It's true. Sorry to disappoint.
Havering is rambling incoherently, or talking nonsense. Ergo, as we like to combatitively say in Glasgow, you are havering.
Am I? First heard in Fife c. 1975. Nonsense, yes; but incoherent? Come now.
My leg hurts.
Oh, not incoherent, or illiterate, just misinformed. I've spotted this "havering = swithering" definition in a few places, and in the absence of Lynne Truss writing a snotty book about it, the burden of tetchiness falls on me.
It is a lonely path.
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