Spread laughter and positive energy with wordplay! Dictomancy - Everyday Wordplay is a Wednesday blog series that features rare, bizarre, and absurd words and their meanings. Work one of these words into your day and spark some laughter and curiosity!
Quiddle - quid*dle v1 1 also with about, around: To trifle, fuss over unimportant matters; to fiddle about; hence n quiddle(r) one who fusses over small matters; vbl n and ppl adj quiddling fussing, trifling, mincing. [EDD quiddle v.1 and sb.2 “To make a fuss about trifles; to fuss, fiddle about; to fret. . .A fussy, over-particular person.”] chiefly NEng Cf piddle 1828 Johnson’s Engl. Dict. (ed. Worcester) 1048 NEng To Quiddle. . .To busy one’s self about trifles . Common in New England. The word is also used as a substantive. 1835 New Engl. Mag. 9.280, It [=fresco] is a style entirely interdicted to the quiddlers—who rely upon diligent imitation, who combine from memory rather than draw from imagination. 2000 Ibid, Quiddle—“to busy oneself with unimportant things”. A student heard it from an aunt in Connecticut and another heard it she things from friends in Maine ‘just quiddling around.’ 1969 DARE (Qu. JJ43, To give away a secret or tell a piece of news too soon: “He wasn’t supposed to know. Somebody must have quiddled.”) Inf CT25, Quiddled.
“All he does is quiddle about things.”
“Quiddle alert: They both die at the end.”
“Why does adulthood feel like everyone can only quiddle instead of doing something genuine?”
Please share and comment on today’s Dictomancy and feel free to post your uses for the words in a positive, lighthearted way. Audience participation makes Everyday Wordplay hilarious!
Works Cited
Cassidy, Frederic G. Chief Editor. Dictionary Of American Regional English. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985. Print