faff
English
Etymology
From a dialect word meaning "blow in gusts".
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fæf/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -æf
Noun
faff (plural faffs)
- (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nuisance
- Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff.
- 2007 November 27, Hadley Freeman, “Miaow!”, in The Guardian:
- God it must be a faff having to get nigh-on naked every time your bladder runneth over, and imagine how much worse it must be if you only have a 20-second break to run off stage to the loo.
- 2011, Patrick Kingsley, “Life with the Queen Mum revealed”, in The Guardian:
- Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff. A page boy must carry the tray upstairs, but he's banned from actually serving it. So he leaves it on the floor by the bedroom door, whereupon a housemaid picks it up and knocks on said portal.
- 2017, Andi Watson, Glister, →ISBN:
- The fuss and faff meant Christmas had long since been drained of any joy and excitement.
- (typically in the phrase 'in a faff') A state of confused or frantic activity.
- Synonym: flap
- She's in a total faff about tonight's dinner party.
Translations
an overcomplicated task
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Verb
faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)
- (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To waste time on an unproductive activity.
- Synonyms: arse around, (American) dick around
- She faffed about so much, she never got to eat her breakfast.
- I decided to stop faffing about and get some work done.
- 2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind (page 131)
- Stop Faffing And Just Do It
Derived terms
- faff about
- faff around
Cimbrian
Etymology 1
From Middle High German pfaffe, from Old High German pfaffo, phapho, from Latin papa, from Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs), from Koine Greek πάπας (pápas), from Ancient Greek πάππας (páppas). Cognate to German Pfaffe, Dutch paap. Doublet of baabost.
Noun
faff m (plural faffen)
- (Luserna, Sette Comuni) priest
- De faffen luughent naach dar zéel bon lòiten.
- Priests heal people's souls.
Etymology 2
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
faff ?
- (Luserna) lily (flower)
References
- “faff” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien