The act of waving your hands around, often used to describe vague or imprecise explanations that lack concrete details.
Compound of 'hand' and 'waving' (present participle of wave). In technical contexts, it developed a metaphorical meaning to describe glossing over details.
When someone uses 'handwaving' to explain something, they're basically saying the explanation is imprecise—it comes from how people literally gesture with their hands to wave away details they don't want to address!
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