meaning - "Wait on" vs "wait for"


I've just heard



your sister is waiting on you



with the meaning of wait for (as in wait for the bus).


Up to now I had only encountered wait on with the meaning of attend to / serve.




  1. Is this use of wait on instead of wait for widely spread in the English speaking world or more specific to certain geographical areas?




  2. In the sentence I'm quoting above, and without further context, could there be any ambiguity as to the meaning?





Answer



It's regional in U.S. English. Much of the U.S. says "waiting for you", but I believe that much of the South says "waiting on you". I don't know exactly what regions use "wait on" (not the Northeast), and a couple of minutes of Googling didn't find any answers, so I can't be more specific.


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