wishy-washy
adj/ˈwɪʃ.iˌwɒʃ.i/UK/ˈwɪʃ.iˌwɑ.ʃi/US
Etymology
Reduplication of washy; more at Wikipedia under ablaut reduplication. The wish portion of the term is explained much more by the ablaut reduplication than by any coincidental semantic appropriateness (such as that wishy-washy people wish that they could have it both ways), although the latter effect may play some nonzero cognitive role in word-finding. Compare also swish, swash, splish, and splash regarding any possible sound symbolism.
Definitions
Wavering
Wavering; lacking in commitment, certainty, support, and (often) clarity; namby-pamby.
- Near-synonyms: vacillating, vacillatory
- Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.
- I’m not about to vote Conservative myself (I’m a wishy-washy centrist who liked Tony Blair’s early work and has since mostly voted Labour, with an occasional swing to the Liberal Democrats and Greens)[…]
Thin or watery.
- Near-synonyms: watered-down, diluted, dilute
- The wishy-washy orange juice served by the cafeteria not only failed to be sweet; it was barely orange.
The neighborhood
- neighborwish-wash
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for wishy-washy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA