Talk:wait on

This needs work. There is a subtle distinction between wait on and the more common wait for. For example, wait on tends more to be used in the progressive and less in the imperative (which would imply the serving sense, not the strict waiting sense). This is probably a dialectal variation, but I don't have enough data points. -dmh 06:28, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

(Answering over four years later!) In Texas, at least, "wait on" simply replaces "wait for" in all relevant meanings. I suspect it originates with German settlers mistranslating warten auf, but I can't prove it. Angr 18:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

(and a further year and a half later). It certainly does not originate with a mistranslation of German. The OED has a citation from 1694.

I agree with dmh that there is a subtle distinction. From the evidence of my own ear, I would say that "wait for" is the more general version, whereas "wait on" has the more specific connotation of "take no action until". The OED says something similar (wait: v.1; sense 14i. for the phrase "wait on"): "To remain in one place in expectation of". 24.42.114.42 03:19, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

(and another nine years later) Even if the construction existed in English before, that doesn't rule out that its contemporary existence in the US could be entirely due to non-English influence. It has been shown that the sense "stupid" for dumb was originally Pennsylvanian and thus clearly due to German influence. Nevertheless there are a few attestations for this sense in Middle English, but they had no continuation. However, what is even more likely is that the existing, but rarer, construction in English was reinforced by foreign influences. Note that other Germanic languages like Dutch, Danish, Swedish, also construe their words for "to wait" with the preposition meaning "on, at the top of". 90.186.170.236 01:44, 13 April 2019 (UTC)