Whifflers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who engage in idle chatter or vague discussions
2. People who make uncommitted choices or express noncommittal opinions
3. Those who shift from one idea to another without a clear or decisive stance

Etymology: "Whifflers" is the plural of "whiffler," and the word's roots lie in "whiffle," a verb meaning to blow in gusts or to shift about, combined with the suffix "-er," which marks a person or thing that performs an action. Its sense of someone who vacillates between positions grows naturally from the older idea of something that is tossed about by changing breezes, like a vane turning with the wind. Because the word is built from a verb plus an agent suffix, its meaning is largely transparent: a whiffler is one whom whiffling affects, a figure that turns this way and that without settling. The plural form simply describes several such people, a group of waverers who cannot commit to a single course.

Synonyms: fence-sitters, vacillators, waverers, indecisives, hesitaters

Antonyms: deciders, determined, resolutes, committed, steadfast