Re: named arguments

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 16 March 2012 13:20, Damian Harty <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Really? How? Without futzing around with varargin and testing for
>> string equality?
>
> Try as I might I'm unable to understand the verb "to futz"... ;-)

The OED thinks it might be Yiddish:

    http://oed.com/view/Entry/75866

For those of you who are paywalled, let me reproduce the contents of the
OED here:

    Pronunciation:  /fʌts/
    Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps alteration of Yiddish
    arumfartzen ( Amer. Speech (1943) XVIII. 43)

    U.S. slang.

      intr. To loaf, waste time, mess around.

    1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan iii. 119 Studs kept futzing
    around until Helen Shires came out with her soccer ball.

    1941 B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? vii. 114 Sammy said,
    ‘‥Maybe you ought to write a play too.’‥ ‘I've been working on one
    for a couple of years,’ I said. ‘Don't futz around with it too
    long,’ Sammy said.

    1968 N. Benchley Welcome to Xanadu vi. 130 It's bad for your blood
    pressure to futz around like this.

Webster's, which isn't paywalled, suggests this etymology:

    perhaps part modification, part translation of Yiddish arumfartsn
    zikh, literally, to fart around

HTH,
-  Jordi G. H.