whiff-whaff

See also: whiff whaff

English

Alternative forms

• whiff whaff, wiff-waff

Etymology 1

From Whiff-Waff, coined by Slazenger & Sons in 1900.

Noun

whiff-whaff (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Table tennis.
   • [2008 September 2, Chris Irvine, “Boris Johnson in whiff-whaff ping-pong row”, in The Telegraph‎^[1], retrieved 2020-11-24:

     Boris Johnson's claim ping-pong was originally a Victorian English invention called whiff-whaff has been attacked by the descendants of the world's oldest sporting and games manufacturer.]

   • 2010, Ben Dirs, Tom Fordyce, Karma Chameleons, →ISBN:

     Jesus wept, there I'd been envisaging a weekend spent reading a book with only my top half hanging out of my tent, and the next thing I know I'm signed up for a spot of naked whiff-whaff. Not that Tom seemed too bothered. "I'm not bad at table-tennis," he said as we made our way to our pitch.

   • 2010 July 17, Howard Jacobson, “Whiff! Whaff! The beautiful game may be coming home”, in The Independent‎^[2], retrieved 2020-11-24:

     "The French looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner," he said. "We looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play whiff-whaff." In fact table tennis was also called gossima in the early days, and, given that Gossamer is the brand name of a condom, the Mayor of London missed out on an even better joke, perhaps calculating that the Chinese wouldn't get it.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeia

Noun

whiff-whaff (plural whiff-whaffs)

1. The breathy sound of something rushing quickly; whoosh.
   • 1922, Stanley John Weyman, The Wild Geese, page 87:

     Then, no one saw precisely how it happened, whiff-whaff, Lemoine's weapon flew from his hand and struck the wall with a whirr and a jangle.

Etymology 3

South Lancashire dialect for nonsense, unspecified words or deeds.

Noun

whiff-whaff (uncountable)

1. (Lancashire, obsolete) Nonsense, words or deeds of little import.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

   • 1854, Tim Bobbin, Samuel Bamford, The dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, page 4:

     Whau, aw'll begin o' thisn' then. It's whiff-whaff Stuart, -- snifterin' Finch yo'known Virtue has laft o' -- truth is fro' o'flown!

   • 1887, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, A Border Shepherdess: A Romance of Eskdale, page 96:

     If you dinna lackey my lady you'll be in for a whiff-whaff o' her sharp temper.

   • 1894, Amelia E. Barr, The Flower of Gala Water: A Novel, page 197:

     You need a seasoning of my penetration, and so on, etc' I shall further intimate that it was, after all, a mare's nest — a whiff-whaff of country say-so — etc., etc.

2. (Lancashire) Unnecessary items or additions.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thingy

   • 1938, Loraine Osborn, Your Voice Personality, page 137:

     Never, never, wear any kind of a whiff-whaff or a thing-ama-bob on your hat.

   • 1975, Jack Newcombe, The best of the athletic boys: the white man's impact on Jim Thorpe:

     Haughton, a great believer in the value of straight football, asked Warner the night before the game if he had pulled such "whiff- whaff," as Percy termed it.