Recently, I heard the expression "hand waving," as in "How was the speech?" "Oh, it was a lot of hand waving," meaning a lot of empty rhetoric or hot air.

Along with this one is the expression "foot stamping," used to mean that the speaker was most emphatic in conveying his/her empty thoughts to the audience.

I had never heard either of these expressions used to mean anything but their literal meanings and was surprised to find this definition in the AHD:

quote:

NOUN: Usually insubstantial words or actions intended to convince or impress: resorted to hand waving instead of arguing rationally.

Has anyone else ever heard or used these phrases in this way?

Wordmatic

Since most of what I say is in this category, it seems a common expression. However, I have recently used these expressions less. Now, when someone passes gas, I say, "Running for office?"

I suspect the expression you've inquired about goes back at least to Shekespeare's day. "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Yes, but I had never heard either expression used in that way in my life--yet several others in this other discussion had. They were all men who worked in business or engineering, except for one, who was a philosophy professor! Possibly I just never "got it" when hearing these expressions used in this manner, or maybe they are more common in some regions than in others.

WM

"Hand waving" is certainly fairly common in the UK; "foot stamping" less so.

I haven't heard them used that way, WM.

Foot stomping to me can either mean you're angry and stomp away. Or it can mean you're excited, such as stomping your feet at a sports game. Hand waving? Well I haven't heard it used except when someone is waving his/her hands.

I heard hand-waving used metaphorically quite often in a software engineering environment, as in 'his approach is nothing more than a lot of hand-waving'.
–noun
insubstantial words, arguments, gestures, or actions used in an attempt to explain or persuade.
[Random House Dict. 2009]

I've heard both used metaphorically.
Out of interest, do Americans use "hand wringing" to describe phoney displays of remorse?

quote:

Originally posted by wordmatic:
...They were all men who worked in business or engineering..

That may be key, Wordmatic. I worked in the paper-pushing end of an engineering firm during the '70' & '80's. My nerdy colleagues were forever circulating tongue-in-cheek expressions for the fatuosity of management. Alas I wish I had kept a journal, memory fails. My bf (now husband) & I were both fairly good at cartooning & used to while away our time depicting, Dilbert-style, organization charts with 4-way stops and cul-de-sacs, bean-counters, dog-&-pony shows, etc etc.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Americans use "hand wringing" to describe phoney displays of remorse?

Yes, unless you're the former Vice President.