to fumfer

[Paul Frank]

Time for fumfer (or fumpher) meaning to temporize or waffle to be
covered by general dictionaries (including the OED)?

"To observers like myself, the President's fumfering answer seemed
colossally dumb."
    Al Franken, The Truth (with jokes), Dutton Adult, 2005, p. 61

"Grandma's feisty and Grandpa is a good-natured fumferer."
  David Rakoff, Half Empty, Doubleday, 2010, p. 118.

"I was just about to fumpher an excuse and make a break for it when he
cleared his throat and said: “Say, Jaine. Have you heard about the
Hermosa High reunion this weekend?"
  Laura Levine, Killing Bridezilla, Kensington Books, 2009, in Google
Books (which doesn't seem to give page numbers anymore).

Paul


Paul Frank
Translator
Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
Espace de l'Europe 16
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org