Waist - waste

Waist and waste are two homophones that sometimes get confused in the spelling.

• Originally, waist meant the thin part of a person's body, above the hips and below the chest. The word was then applied to clothes, or at least that part of them that covers the waist. It was then extended to mean, figuratively, the thin part of many other things. Insects like wasps, for example, have waists; the narrow part of any geographical body can be described as a waist, as in the country of Wales or the narrow part of the sea such as the English Channel. Panama is the waist between North and South America. The waist of a ship is the narrow part, measured vertically, between the two raised superstructures at either end. (It is usually the broadest part when viewed from above.)
  • There is a related participle waisted, meaning 'to have a waist', or 'with a narrower section'. A violin can be described as waisted.
• Waste is used as adjective, noun and verb. The adjective was first applied to land. 'Waste land' was uncultivated, uninhabited or barren. So a farmer might leave a patch of land to 'lie waste' - that is, not work it. An enemy army might 'lay the land waste' - that is, devastate it, destroy all the crops, trees etc, drive off the farmed animals and demolish all the buildings. This was the original meaning of the verb 'to waste'. It then developed to the more general idea of 'to reduce the value of' something, not necessarily land; and then 'to consume', 'to use up'. (Victims of the disease tuberculosis, or TB, which was called 'consumption', were said to be 'wasting away'.) OED says that the most prominent meaning now is the "unfavourable sense: To spend, consume, employ uselessly or without adequate result. a. To consume, expend, bestow (money, property) uselessly, with needless lavishness or without adequate return; to make prodigal or improvident use of; to squander." One can waste money, time and effort - as well as all materials.
  • The related participle wasted may be applied, a usual, to all the things that someone has wasted. In addition, there is a slang passive usage in the UK: a person might report on an evening's enjoyment that someone 'was wasted'. This means that that person was very drunk.