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Google says "faff" is just British English. Is it well understood in other English speaking regions? If not, is there an international alternative?
BRITISH informal
verb: faff; 3rd person present: faffs; past tense: faffed; past participle: faffed; gerund or present participle: faffing
noun: faff
It appears the expression is still mainly a British one:
From the Phrase Finder:
- Faffing about' is a phrase that is most often heard in the UK rather than in other parts of the English-speaking world. In fact, even in the UK it is something of an anachronism, more at home in a P G Wodehouse story than as 21st century street slang.
From World Wide Words:
- It’s originally British, informal but not rude, and moderately common, especially in the form to faff about. The Daily Telegraph included this on 15 March 2008: “The early boarders certainly bag their seats quickly, but then they immediately relax and happily faff about putting their things in the overhead locker, generally getting in the way of the other passengers.”
- The word started to move into the wider language in its modern sense around the end of the nineteenth century, though it didn’t much appear in print until the 1980s.
Fom Wiktionary:
- (Britain, slang) To waste time on an unproductive activity.
- She faffed about so much, she never got to eat her breakfast.
- I decided to stop faffing about and get some work done.
From One-off Britishisms:
“The Ben Wyatt I know, I don’t think he’d be happy just sitting here faffing around.”
The Britishism in there is derived from faff, a verb meaning dither or fuss, and is usually followed by about. The Oxford English Dictionary’s first citation, from an 1874 volume called Yorkshire Oddities, suggests that it originated as a regionalism: “T’ clock~maker‥fizzled an’ faff’d aboot her, but nivver did her a farthing’s worth o’ good.”
Up till now, U.S. use has been spotty (and I don’t mean spotty in the English sense). It is a favorite of New York Times sports blogger Jeff Z. Klein, who, covering the 2008 women’s soccer matches at the 2008 Olympics, wrote:
- Much faffing about as these final minutes tick down. New Zealand have a throw. in deep in the Amerk zone, but the one Fern is surrounded by four Americans and winds up on her back as they run away with the ball.
Klein’s use of the plural verb have with the collective New Zealand indicates he has absorbed a bit too much English football coverage, and suggests that faff is still more or less a one-off.
As noted by a few users, the expression appears to be commonly used in Australia where it may have found its way in the early days as suggested the Phrase Finder:
From "The Australian Journal", 1879:
"No, it [a candle] burns quite steadily now; you are right about it faffing about before, because it blew towards my face."
Baring-Gould's citation locates the phrase amongst the rural working classes and its use in Australia at a time when English speakers in that country were predominantly ex-UK convicts, suggests that the phrase was to be found below rather than above stairs.
I would say it's somewhat common here in Australia (although I am British).
It certainly has a lot of results on Google search of Australian websites, such as this gem on the 'achievements' of our Great Prime Minister:
http://www.afr.com/opinion/editorials/mr-turnbull-has-to-stop-faffing-around-20160310-gng85i
Note, this is not a .com.au website, but AFR = Australian Financial Review.
This is a well used and understood phrase in South Africa, so is "Arseing around". We also say "Stop standing around looking pretty.". An American equivalent would be "goofing off" or "fooling about".
The word “faff” and related phrases are commonly used in Ireland. Here’s an example of a newspaper article from earlier this year which uses the term, “faffing” in its headline.
It would be understood, even though it's not commonly used.
As a Canadian, I've heard the term (and similar phrases like "fanny about") mostly on British TV shows. Some British shows (Top Gear, Downtown Abbey, Doctor Who, QI, etc.) are popular here, so even though Canadians and Americans rarely use the terms, many people would know them.
In the verb form, there's a context clue, because "x-ing around" and "x-ing about" are almost snowclones. If I say that I'm dicking around, puttering around, goofing around, farting around, screwing around, messing around, etc, people know that I'm engaged in idle/wasteful activity, even if they've never heard that particular variant before.
Many phrases have spread much further in the last few decades due to the internet. However, local phrases often trump these newcomers, simple because they are more common in the area. From personal experience, I first heard "Faff" on the Rooster Teeth Podcast, because of Gavin Free. However, I still use "screw" instead in the same context, because that is more common where I grew up. 'Screw around' and 'Faff about' are synonymous.
The fact of the matter is that it originated in England, so it will almost always be considered British English. There will always be people who have heard it anyway, due to the internet. But it will almost always be most common in its place of origin, like most words.
I agree with the many answers saying that you can't expect this word to be understood in most English speaking areas, including the US.
But you requested an alternative phrase. Here are some I'm familiar with in America:
screw around
- having frivolous sex
- playing, or wasting time
Lacking a sexual context, I would definitely assume the 2nd definition, but apparently this has strong sexual connotations for some, so careful with that. When wasting time, I am "screwing around".
fool around
This is pretty much the same as "screw around", but with stronger sexual connotations. It would refer more to cheating on a partner than just having random casual sex.
Other, similar phrases include:
dicking around, puttering around, goofing around, farting around, messing around, putzing around, horsing around, fucking around
"Puttering", "goofing", "farting", "putzing", and "horsing" wouldn't have sexual connotations.
... off
Some of those phrases could substitute 'off' for 'around': screwing off, goofing off, fucking off.
Examples (Urban Dictionary):
fucking off: To not be doing anything or doing nothing at all. Wasting time just to pass the time. Chris didn't do anything at work, he was just fucking off all day!
screwing off: see "dicking around" stop screwing off you dumb wanker and help me
... about
Any of those phrases could substitute 'about' for around, but I think it's less common. One word 'about' pairs well with is 'lazing': lazing about.
wasting time
This is just directly saying what you're doing, but not an uncommon phrasing.
There are many idioms available. In my experience, the most common is 'screw around'. If you want be certain you're understood, just say "wasting time".
A native Finnish speaker, but with an extensive vocabulary of English and understanding of both British and American particulars of the language; I've never heard 'faff' before. In fact it's a word that doesn't bring any kind of image in my head, either. I often learn words by making a guess and verifying the meaning from thesaurus or dictionaries, but with 'faff', I'd be at the mercy of the a dictionary (or Google, of course! ;-)
American here. I've probably never heard this word before, but in general if someone were to say anything of the form "_____ around" then I'd automatically know that the phrase is synonymous with "screwing around," "messing around," etc. You can put virtually anything in the blank. Moreover if you put something like "faff" in the blank I'm going to assume it's some kind of fancy British word, just from how the word sounds.
