"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Fiddlefaddle



Often used as an exclamation, fiddlefaddle means balderdash; trivial nonsense.  It is falling out of favour and seems to have been largely superseded by far less polite words.  My spellchecker prefers it to be written fiddle faddle as two separate words. Having hit the autocorrect button to do that it then tells me faddle is not a word.  Fiddlefaddle!

Fiddlefaddle is also a verb though I have never heard it used as such.  It means to fritter away one's time; to fuss or waste time, especially over trivial matters.

3 comments:

  1. Fiddle Faddle, Fuddle Duddle!
    Canada once had a Prime Minister with a rose in his lapel and bit of international cachet, who, in a moment of exuberance unrestrained, was caught in a photo doing a pirouette behind the Queen's back. In the days before remote mics could pick up "unparliamentary language," the Prime Minister said something colourful and later rose to the challenges of reporters by asking: "What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say 'fuddle duddle' or something like that?" (Thanks to Wiki for the quote!) Thanks.
    Take care, McGregor

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    Replies
    1. Why don't we have colourful politicians any more? They seem to have died out in the eighties in the UK.

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  2. Fiddles must have had a bad reputation? Thinking of "fiddlesticks" as well...

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