Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Hand-waving
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Spelling and history == The spelling of the [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] varies (both with regard to this idiom and the everyday human communication gesture of [[Wave (gesture)|waving]]). While ''hand-waving'' is the most common spelling of the unitary [[present participle]] and [[gerund]] in this usage, and ''hand-wave'' of the [[simple present]] verb, ''hand wave'' dominates as the [[Noun phrase|noun-phrase]] form. ''Handwaving'' and ''handwave'' may be preferred in some circles, and are well attested.<ref name="note">Usage patterns are easily observable with Google and other search engines, which also reveal the difficulty of excluding false positives from various particular search terms.</ref> "Hand waving" is mostly used otherwise, e.g. "she had one hand waving, the other on the rail", but is found in some dictionaries in this form.<ref name="Dictionary.com" /> A more arch, mock-antiquarian construction is ''waving of [the] hands''. [[Superlative]] constructions such as "vigorous hand-waving", "waved their hand[s] furiously", "lots of waving of hands", etc., are used to imply that the hand-waver lacks confidence in the information being conveyed, cannot convincingly express or defend the core of the argument being advanced. The descriptive epithet ''hand-waver'' has been applied to those engaging in hand-waving, but is not common. The opposite of hand-waving is sometimes called '''nose-following''' in mathematics {{see below|{{section link||In mathematics}}, below}}. However it is spelled, the expression is also used in the original literal meaning of gesturing in a greeting, departing, excited, or attention-seeking manner by waving the hands, as in "friendly were the hand-waving crowds ..." (β [[Sinclair Lewis]]),<ref name="Dictionary.com" /> which dates to the mid-17th century as a hyphenated verb<ref name="OxfordDictionaries.com UK">{{cite web |title=hand-wave |work=Oxford Dictionaries Online |edition=British and World English |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url= https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/hand-wave |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151110025053/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/hand-wave |url-status= dead |archive-date= November 10, 2015 |access-date=January 26, 2015}} This is an online edition of ''[[Oxford Dictionary of English]]'' with additional material.</ref> and the early 19th century United States as a fully compounded verb.<ref name="OxfordDictionaries.com US 1">{{cite web |title=handwave |work=Oxford Dictionaries Online |version=American English |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url= https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/handwave |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160201142153/https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/handwave |url-status= dead |archive-date= February 1, 2016 |access-date=January 26, 2015}} This is an online edition of the ''[[New Oxford American Dictionary]]''.</ref> It is unclear when the figurative usage arose. The ''[[Oxford Dictionary of English]]'' lists it as "extended use",<ref name="OxfordDictionaries.com UK" /> and it appears primarily in modern American dictionaries, some of which label it as "informal".<ref name="Dictionary.com" />
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)