No, I’m not swearing! Today, a repost of some lovely words we must all try to use to they don’t disappear completely. We start with ‘iffy’ (thank you Katharine Eyre) which can mean a bit off, unreliable or possibly not quite legal. A contract might be a bit iffy, you might feel a bit doubtful, or iffy, about signing it. The word is apparently associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt!
Then there’s ‘miffed’, meaning displeased or slightly offended. It’s onomatopoeic in origin, so ‘miff’ was originally the sound you made when you were miffed. Try it😊
Moving on to ‘squiffy’ which is what you are if you’re tipsy, or slightly drunk. And in that condition, everything might look ‘skew whiff’. The combination of ‘askew’ and ‘weft’, the expression comes from handloom weavers, typically in northern England, and was used to describe fabric which was out of alignment. Ties are very often skew whiff.
A ‘tiff’ is the not too serious argument you might get into when you come home squiffy, to find your partner miffed.
And lastly, still on the subject of alcohol, ‘tiffin’ was the lunch in India given its colonial name from the old English verb ‘to tiff’ meaning to take a small drink or a sip. But not enough to get you squiffy.