How longs a while?

Answer 1

There has been quite a bit of speculation as to the origination of the term/phrase "a while", after much research I have come up with the approximate answer. We begin with a story.

In the mid 17th century (1800s) there was a whaling ship departing from Europe to the Atlantic Ocean. After many days of sailing, one afternoon, one of the crew members finally spotted a whale. It is guessed that he said something along the lines of "Look at the size of that whale! it must be at least a hundred feet long!" but due to his heavy accent (because many types of people worked on whaling ships, and no one questioned anyone because anyone willing to work on the ship is pretty much entitled to, his accent is unknown) it sounded as if he said "Whail". after many hours of hard work, the finally killed the whale and brought it on board, and on the way back to the port the crew members started joking about the way the man had talked, saying things such as "How long was that while?". soon after docking the port, the crew members went home to their families and a few were heard making the joke.

One day, not to much later, one of the men from the ship came home and asked when supper would be, and his wife said "it will be a while". The mas asked "where did you hear that?" and the wife replied, I heard it from some of your friend's wives down at the marketplace, but I am not quite sure how long a while is. The man laughed and said, "It is over one hundred feet long, and I killed it a few days ago".

And so, that is where the term "While" came from, although it has been manipulated so much, it merely means a decently long time.