Wiggle a floppy disk at

In truth, there are more good variations on the basic PC than we could wiggle a floppy disk at.

What does the phrase “wiggle a floppy disk at” mean?

2 Likes

I think the author made the phrase up. Based on the given context I would say it’s supposed to mean ‘a great number of options’ but I would be interested to hear @Alan’s and @Andrea’s or anyone else’s opinion too.

2 Likes

I don’t think you can use “wiggle a floppy disk at” - to me it doesn’t make sense with ‘at’.

wiggle - move around
floppy disk - a disk used for storage (many years ago)

Maybe the floppy disk is jammed in the drive and in order to dislodge it, you need to wiggle it around.

2 Likes

@Andrea: Many thanks for confirming that ‘wiggle a floppy disk at’ doesn’t make much sense if any.

@Sitifan: Out of interest, can you please tell us where you found that sentence? 提前致謝

3 Likes

My original sentence was quoted from Peter Norton’s DOS Guide, page xvi. (published in 1987)
The following sentence is quoted from a newer edition, published in 1989.
In truth, there are more good variations on the old workhorse AT than we could wiggle a floppy disk at.
https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=__RLAAAAYAAJ&q=“than+we+could+wiggle+a+floppy+disk+at.”&dq=“than+we+could+wiggle+a+floppy+disk+at.”&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ9YrOmd3mAhWqyIsBHb4-Do4Q6AEIKDAA

3 Likes

To wiggle is to move something back and forth. When you dance, you probably wiggle your hips. If you wiggle them too much, your mother might wiggle a finger at you and say “Settle down!”

3 Likes

This is a humorous variation on the expression - shake a stick at - used when you suggest there are more than you can imagine. This is an example -

We have an awful lot of public houses in this town. Indeed there are more than you can shake a stick at.

This is believed to be of a military origin where the enemy army is much bigger than yours and you couldn’t really defeat them even by threatening them with a stick.

4 Likes

Hi Alan, thank you very much for sharing this, I would not have been able to make this connection :smiley:. What’s interesting is that the book the phrase appeared in (Peter Norton’s DOS Guide) was published in 1989, at a time when the web as we know it today had not been born yet. So, the phrase had not been indexed up until today thanks to Sitifan :wink: .

3 Likes

Thanks for this, @Alan.

I was thinking about this after my post earlier and wondered about whether it was aimed at someone.

2 Likes