the.com/shelving
The art of saying 'not now' to an idea without having the guts to say 'never'.
means Putting a plan, project, or decision aside for later — often a later that never actually arrives.
from From 'shelf,' the flat board for storing things — going back to Old English 'scylfe,' related to words for a split or ledge of wood or rock. The verb 'shelve' showed up meaning literally to fit with shelves or put something on one, and by the 1800s had picked up the figurative sense of putting an idea into storage — out of sight, technically not discarded, just quietly gathering dust.
- corporate euphemism
- Often means cancelled but nobody wants to say it
- library science
- Also a real job title: literal book shelving
- geology term
- Shelving also describes a gradually sloping seabed
- psychological cousin
- Related to procrastination, but socially acceptable in meetings