Noun: fiddle
| Singular | fiddle |
| Plural | fiddles |
Sample Sentences
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...Of harpe & of salteriun. of fiðele & of coriun... [c. 1275, Layamon, Brut, Cotton Caligula A.IX, l. 3490]
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Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
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'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia an' the Devil deals the cards... [1979, Charlie Daniels et al., The Devil Went Down to Georgia:]
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When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like that, it's a violin.
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The fiddle of these early times, however, was the viol and not our modern violin. [1864, William Sandys et al., The History of the Violin..., page 38:]
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He is first fiddle in the band.
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You would not have your Son the Fiddle to every jovial Company. [1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, page 208:]
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There was some kind of fiddle going on at that company, and several of the directors were arrested.
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Says Bevin: 'I want peace... and we shan't get it unless we deal with one another as friends. I will be a party to no fiddles.' [1947 June 22, People, p. 4]
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I know you'll think this is one of my fiddles. At my last parish we raffled a horse and trap,... a clothes horse and a mousetrap. [1959 Sept. 4, The Spectator, p. 297]
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That parameter setting is just a fiddle to make the lighting look right.
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Most people are quite careful about buying appliances. When looking at TVs for instance you might look for a particular brand, peruse the definition and colors on the screen, and maybe even have a fiddle with the remote. [1998, Dean Ormandy, Conquering Computers, page 74:]
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The meal is served on special trays which slot into the arms of airline-type seats of the passenger coaches. The trays have fiddles for each of the plates, cups and glasses, and the crockery is so well-designed that it is seldom any of the contents get spilled. [1962 September, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Talgo trains of Spain”, in Modern Railways, page 188:]
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Done at a fiddle.
Nouns inflected like fiddle
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English fithele, from Old English *fiþele, from Proto-West Germanic *fiþulā, from Proto-Germanic *fiþulǭ (“fiddle”), of uncertain etymology. Some contest that the Germanic terms are borrowed variations of Late Latin vitula (see viola); others contest that the word has a separate origin within Germanic languages, and still others believe that the Late Latin term for the stringed instrument is a borrowing from Germanic as a change of Latin t to Germanic þ is highly improbable, yet Germanic þ to Latin t is well documented (see troop, trousers, Teobaldo, etc.). Cognate with Old High German fidula (German Fiedel), Middle Dutch vedele (Dutch vedel, veel), Old Norse fiðla (Icelandic fiðla, Danish fiddel, Norwegian fela, Swedish fela).
2. The change from /ðl/ to /dl/ in modern English is regular; compare Bedlam, staddle, swaddle (in brothel, it was prevented; see that entry for discussion). See: Middle English Nouns '
fithele', Old English Nouns '
*fiþele', German Nouns '
Fiedel', Dutch Nouns '
vedel', Old Norse Nouns '
fiðla', Icelandic Nouns '
fiðla', Swedish Nouns '
fela'.
Verbs referencing "fiddle"
English Nouns
feddle, French Nouns
vielle, Norwegian Bokmål Nouns
fele, Dutch Nouns
vedel, German Nouns
Fiedel.