For those that don't know

[featherynscale]

A "while" is a unit of time in the SSMS (Southern Standardized Measurement System) that could indicate anywhere from 5-10 standard minutes (NB: A "standard minute" consists of sixty seconds, cf a "football minute" which can last up to a standard hour), as in "She's going to be on the phone a while", to 5-10 years, as in "He spent a while in jail". I hope this helps clear things up.

Comments

[teross50.livejournal.com]

HHHMMMmm Yes from the southern standard terms dictionary
"He needed killin" is a viable defense

Oh, yes.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Other variable measurements of time I use every day include:

second -- meaning a very short time, like you're next on my list, if you'd just let me get my pants on dammit. "I'll be there in a second!"

minute -- meaning short-term patience will be required but almost certainly less than an hour, like I need to finish doing this other (more interesting and/or important) thing first before you get my attention. "Sure, just gimme a minute."

while -- possibly never but certainly not soon, like you're at my mercy so be prepared to wait for me to feel like responding...or to have strategic distractions placed in front of you. "What a great idea! Why don't we do that in a little while?"

Me too

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

"just the other day" could be any time in the last 2 years, approximately.

Just the other day

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

No, no, "just the other day" has to be within the past two weeks. "The other day", though, that has the timeline you're on.

Technical term with similar variability ...

[liquidfun.livejournal.com]

"jiffy" has also been rigidly defined, unfortunately too many times.

Back in the early 80, when microcomputers were just becoming available to the public, a "jiffy" was defined as a tick of the system timer, which usually ran off household power ("mains" to the brits). This meant 1/60th of a second to us in the US, which was convenient, as it kept a constant ratio for hours to minutes, minutes to seconds, and seconds to jiffies. In most of the rest of the world, it meant 1/50th of a second, which while not as consistent at least had a nice decimal representation of 0.02 seconds.

Documentation for accessing devices would often include a reference to place a request in this register, wait some number of jiffies, then read the answer from that register.

With the advent of faster computers, 1/60th of a second was far too long a period of time to consider waiting on anything, so a millisecond was adopted by many manufacturers as the new interpretation of a jiffy. Although to be honest, now that microcomputers are not a hobby, nearly everything is measured in terms of either discrete S.I. units or as some number of either FSB cycles or CPU cycles.

Sadly, in other disciplines a jiffy was often defined in other ways, for instance, physicists have referred to a jiffy (mostly jokingly) as the amount of time required for light to travel one foot (which is within several percent of one nanosecond).

I look the above ... and I say "GEEK" and point at myself.

I think I'll go soak my head in a bucket for a "while". Or for a "jiffy". Whatever.

let me see if I've got this

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

jiffy < second < minute < while < any moment now

Re: let me see if I've got this

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yep. I think that's about right.

Any moment now shall be taken to be defined as "as soon as the dustbunnies evolve".

Re: let me see if I've got this

[liquidfun.livejournal.com]

jiffy < second < minute < while < any moment now < geologic era < when chaosdruid says "in my CFT"*

*CFT: Copious Free Time