Dither

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Dither

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:54 pm

• dither •

Pronunciation: dith-êr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, verb

Meaning: 1. [Noun] A state of agitated indecision, nervously wavering in the face of different courses of action. 2. [Verb] To act in an agitated, nervous, indecisive manner. 3. [Verb, electronic music and graphics] To smudge, blend, or fade, to add intermediate colors between the edges of a graphic object and its background to hide the jagged edges made by square pixels forming a rounded line, or to add random sound to minimize distortion in a sound file.

Notes: Although today's Good Word started out meaning simply "to shake, vibrate", today it refers mostly to a 'vibrating' (agitated) psychological state. When we are in a dither, we are in a nervous, agitated state caused by an inability to reach a decision, which is to say, when we are dithering. This word is related to diddle, daddle, toddle, totter, and those mentioned in today's Word History, but all were created off the radar and not by regular rules we can trace.

In Play: We probably use today's word more as a noun than a verb: "Ethyl Gass was in a dither over which car she should drive to her high school reunion." It does work just as well as a verb, though: "Ferris Weal was dithering over which table to sit at when Corliss walked out of the restaurant muttering under her breath."

Word History: Today's Good Word was originally spelled and pronounced with a D rather than a TH in the middle: didder. It arrived in English in the 14th century, from where, no one knows. In all probability it was an onomatopoetic creation, the repeated [d] sounds reflecting the movement of a vibrating or shaking object. By the 17th century an alternative pronunciation, diddle, had arisen in parallel with didder with the same meaning, giving us three words, didder, diddle, and dither from the same source. Each then set out on its own course giving us what we have today in these words. (Lest we leave Jeanne Henry in a dither, let us heartily thank her for suggesting today's very Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: DITHER

Postby Slava » Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:23 am

I saw a list of a few examples of usage recently (just now, that is) and interestingly, those that used it as a verb of vacillation did not really seem to come across as having anything nervous about them. Politicians dither, but only in the sense of attempting to get tied down to one position, not out of tense nervousness or excitement. What do you folks think?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: DITHER

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:01 pm

Certainly. I suspect parties conduct secret politico speech, so that one can "speak yet say nothing." Except recently in Louisiana a tweet during a debate pointed out that both contestants had a great grasp of their opponents position. That said, politico speech has devolved to slamming the other party. No one dares say what they might support in a positive way, not even in a dithering manner.

Incidentally, i have a faint memory of diddle being used as in fiddling with public accounts. I easily remember "Hey diddle diddle," but that's a nonsense rhyme. Anyone else familiar with the reference to accounting?
pl

User avatar
call_copse
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 668
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:42 am
Location: Southampton

Re: DITHER

Postby call_copse » Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:40 am

@Perry
Diddle is used in the UK for swindle or cheat, amongst other uses.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diddle
Iain


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Google [Bot] and 40 guests