英和和英

語源

hand +‎ waving

発音

• (英国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/

形容詞

handwaving (comparative more handwaving, superlative most handwaving)

1. (not comparable) Waving the hands.
2. Pertaining to empty gesturing, with little substance behind it; vague.
   • 2001, Jeffrey Kluger, ‘Obesity’, Time, 15 Jan 2001:

     For years much of this has been explained with hand-waving references to body types and metabolism -- broadly accurate, but cold comfort to the estimated 61% of Americans who are overweight or obese and want to have their weight controlled, not merely explained.

名詞

handwaving (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 handwavings)

1. (chiefly figurative) Frantic or conspicuous gesturing (during an argument etc.), especially as contrasted with a lack of underlying substance or meaning; empty gesturing.
   • 2000, Time, letter, 21 Aug 2000:

     Protesters who demand that this brilliantly humane enterprise be stopped should have their motives questioned. Their protest is nothing but the mindless hand waving of Luddites.

   • 2009, ‘Squid Business’, The Economist, 3 Nov 2009:

     McClatchy goes on to try and level a damning critique, which amounts to a lot of handwaving about things we already know.

   • 2011, Andrew Brown, The Guardian, 17 Jun 2011:

     So when we're discussing thought and conscious processes, talking about minds is precise, and even measurable (what else do public opinion pollsters do?) while talking about brains is just hand-waving.

形容詞

hand-waving (comparative more hand-waving, superlative most hand-waving)

1. Alternative spelling of handwaving
   • 2001 January 15, Jeffrey Kluger, “Obesity”, in Time:

     For years much of this has been explained with hand-waving references to body types and metabolism—broadly accurate, but cold comfort to the estimated 61% of Americans who are overweight or obese and want to have their weight controlled, not merely explained.

   • 2018, Marcus Chown, Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand […] ‎^[2], Michael O'Mara Books, →ISBN:

     You, me and everything in the universe are holograms. This may seem very vague and hand-waving. However, in 1998, the Argentinean-American physicist Juan Maldacena published a paper that shored up the idea that we live in a ‘holographic universe’ and set the world of physics alight.

動詞

hand-waving

1. present participle of hand-wave.