A lesson in verbs for my loyal subjects

• “She would waive to them as she passed each day.”

The tragedy here is that usually people fail by using the complicated, obscure word but spelling it as if it were the uncomplicated, obvious word which sounds the same.

But no.

Here’s someone who apparently grasps, longingly, for sophistication (I’m theorizing here), so they use the fanciest available spelling for the ordinary verb.

• For the record: waive means to refrain from claiming or insisting on, to give up. I waive my right to humiliate you about your writing.
• To wave is to do what the Queen does. Although with exceedingly little wrist action.