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11:20AM
Aug-16-09
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fotospinner
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i was taught that we "wait for" people to show up for something, and "wait for" something to happen. Waiters "wait on" tables. However i am a product of New York City schools. I have noticed that everyone today seems to use waiting on when they are waiting for something to happen, or are waiting for someone. Is this one of those local expression clusters, like waiting on line vs waiting in line? Germans all learn "waiting for" exactly the way I was taught it in English class. Which is right?
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10:19PM
Aug-16-09
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SchreiberBike
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I think there is a small difference in connotation. When I wait for someone, I am waiting for a legitimate reason. When I wait on, someone, they are just making me wait to annoy me. 
Don't know if that's widespread, but that's my impression from the Mid West.
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10:03AM
Aug-18-09
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fotospinner
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Interesting, but that would mean that there are an awful lot of annoyed people in this country. No wonder those town meetings are getting so out of control. I will pay more attention to the reasons for waiting, but it seems to me that except for people of my age and in my area, as well as overseas, "waiting on" seems to have taken over completely. i used to think that it was just southern slang.
Any more opinions? If you out there do not start to contribute, I may soon be waiting on you to do something.
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12:07PM
Aug-18-09
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Ron Draney
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It's certainly not a brand new expression. George Harrison had a song called "Awaiting On You All" on his "All Things Must Pass" album, and that was almost forty years ago (and in a country that's supposed to have cleaner grammatical standards).
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5:45PM
Aug-18-09
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tromboniator
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Half a century ago, in rural New York State, "wait on" applied only to taking care of customers. Today, in Alaska, either no one says "wait for" or I don't notice when they do. "Wait on" is pervasive, and sends me running for anti-itch medication every time.
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11:08PM
Aug-26-09
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margaloo
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I don't hear "wait on" when I think it should be "wait for" around here that I can recall. I'm not sure I hear "wait on" much at all outside of waiting on a table. I've lived in Wisconsin for the last few years but grew up in Northern California.
I do hate these perverted uses of prepositions though. Here in Wisconsin people say "I'll go by Donaldson's tomorrow." When they mean they are actually going to stop there, and perhaps go IN. I would say "I'm going to go TO THE Donaldsons' tomorrow." When we say "the shoes are by the oven" we never mean that they are actually IN the oven, right?
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11:27AM
Aug-29-09
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saramspinks
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I've only lived in Texas, and I have heard "wait on" for servers in a restauraunt as well as for an impatient waiting. Wait for is a more hopeful or expectant waiting. That being said, remember that in other languages, prepositions take on a whole different dynamic than they do in English. In Spanish, in which I am fluent, they have about 1/3 the number of prepositions as we do in English, so most of them function in the place of multiple English prepositions (e.g. en= in, on, at, por=for, instead of, and through), yet Spanish speakers can be just as eloquent as English speakers. Having a phrase in English in which you can substitute one of many prepositions to mean the same thing or mean subtle differences is not THAT perverse.
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11:33AM
Aug-29-09
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saramspinks
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In reference to "go by" that is another subtle meaning variation. Where I'm from, it's understood that "go by" a place means to go to for a very brief intentional task. "Go to" has a more lengthy and undefined intention. Often, "pass by" is used to indicate going near but not stopping, to differentiate the two.
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7:37PM
Aug-22-10
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T2
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Just found this site. Oh, yes, I too run for the anti-itch medication whenever I hear the ubiquitous "wait on" rather than "wait for." There IS a difference as noted by most of the posts, but unfortunately such differences are rarely observed nowadays. I also lament the ubiquitous word "issue"– used most often instead of "problem"– and "impact" rather than "effect" or "influence." for example. There was a time when teenagers could learn correct usage by mimicking adults–parents, teachers, radio/TV broadcasters; now, for whatever reason, adults adopt the incorrect usage of teenagers! Language changes, of course, but its purpose is still to communicate and unless we use precise language, communication is thwarted.
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3:58PM
Aug-23-10
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Bob Bridges
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Agreed, "wait on" is more impatient—not necessarily that he's making me wait just for the fun of it, but at least that he should have been here by now. But the distinction isn't reliable.
Saramspinks, don't forget that "por" also means "by" as in "written by".
You may be right that Spanish has fewer prepositions, but I don't know that I would lean too heavily on that in my explanation. ALL languages vary widely in their use of prepositions. Sure, the basics are pretty reliable when applied to physical relations—over/under, above/below, ahead/behind, before/after, up/down, left/right and so on. But a letter to you, a run by McDonald's, a messenger from God, a class on statistics, a book about London, a cup of tea, a spoon of silver, an argument over dinner, an argument over where to go for dinner, going for dinner, shedding light on the subject, you can be sure that all these prepositions vary in every language you study.
Except Swedish. I've never seen a language that so closely parallel's English.
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3:16PM
Sep-27-10
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lux rationis
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Post edited 3:18PM – Sep-27-10 by lux rationis
SchreiberBike said:
I think there is a small difference in connotation. When I wait for someone, I am waiting for a legitimate reason. When I wait on, someone, they are just making me wait to annoy me.
Don't know if that's widespread, but that's my impression from the Mid West.
This is also the connotation that I grew up with. "Wait on" seems to be commonest when a single person is holding up the progress of an assembled group. Notice the shift of preposition in this conversational exchange:
"Let's go…what are we waiting for?"
"We're waiting on Leanne; she's in the bathroom."
In the initial question, it's "wait for" because the reason for waiting is unknown. In the response, the speaker says "wait on" to assign blame for the delay to a specific party who lags behind the readiness of the group.
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