"Fuddy-duddy" (or "fuddy duddy" or "fuddy-dud") [1] is a term for a person who is fussy while old-fashioned, traditionalist, conformist or conservative, sometimes almost to the point of eccentricity or geekiness. It is a slang term, mildly derogatory but sometimes affectionate too and can be used to describe someone with a zealous focus on order. [2]
"Fuddy-duddy" is considered a word based on duplication and may have originated as a fused phrase made to form a rhyming jingle. Duddy is similar to Daddy and may have caught on from children's rhyming. [3]
Douglas Harper of the Online Etymology Dictionary reports it from "1871, American English, of uncertain origin." [4] However, Dictionary.com Unabridged compares it to a Northern English dialectal term: "1900-05; of obscure origin; compare dial. (Cumberland) duddy-fuddiel a ragged fellow." [5]
Gary Martin states: "William Dickinson's A glossary of words and phrases pertaining to the dialect of Cumberland, 1899, has:
"Duddy fuddiel, a ragged fellow""
and "in 1833, the Scots poet James Ballantyne wrote The Wee Raggit Laddie:
Wee stuffy, stumpy, dumpie laddie,
Thou urchin elfin, bare an' duddy,
Thy plumpit kite an' cheek sae ruddy,
Are fairly baggit,
Although the breekums on thy fuddy,
Are e'en right raggit." [6]
"Fuddy-duddy" is used to indicate "stuffiness" and "outmoded tastes and manners". [7] For example, the Bentley car manufacturer was referred to as a "fuddy-duddy" brand in a 2004 Popular Science article. [8]
Ambrose Bierce's story Who Drives Oxen Should Himself be Sane, published in 1918, starts out with a use of the word and discussion of it as a "unique adjuration". [9] The term is also used in the title of juvenile fiction including Kay Hoflander's The Chautauqua Kids and the Fuddy Duddy Daddy: A Tale of Pancakes & Baseball, [10] and the Uncle Fuddy-Duddy series by Roy Windham and Polly Rushton. [11] [12]
"Fuddy-duddy" is often used to refer to a man perceived as stodgy or foolish. It has been used throughout the 20th century, but its origins are unknown. The short form "fud" may relate to the Bugs Bunny cartoon character Elmer Fudd. The terms frump and old fart have also been used as words to designate similar qualities. [13]
Female figures have been labelled with terms of a similar meaning, including "school marm" or "marm", which could be used for an older female disciplinarian such as a stereotypical type of strict teacher.
"Fuddy-duddy" was often used as a verb by a native of the state of Maine in the sense of 'to act in a foolish or ineffectual manner'. [14]
Gibberish, also called jibber-jabber or gobbledygook, is speech that is nonsense: ranging across speech sounds that are not actual words, pseudowords, language games and specialized jargon that seems nonsensical to outsiders.
-logy is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in -λογία (-logía). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French -logie, which was in turn inherited from the Latin -logia. The suffix became productive in English from the 18th century, allowing the formation of new terms with no Latin or Greek precedent.
Pussy is a term used as a noun, an adjective, and—in rare instances—a verb in the English language. It has several meanings, as slang, as euphemism, and as vulgarity. The most common as a noun, it means "cat", as well as "coward or weakling". In slang usage, it can mean "the human vulva or vagina" and less commonly, as a form of synecdoche, meaning "sexual intercourse with a woman". Because of its multiple senses including both innocent and vulgar connotations, pussy is often the subject of double entendre.
Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours", and "one hand washes the other". Other languages use other phrases for the same purpose.
A cliché is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage.
Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase used to proclaim a school that a person formerly attended or graduated from.
This glossary of names for the British include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe British people, and more specifically English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish people. Many of these terms may vary between offensive, derogatory, neutral and affectionate depending on a complex combination of tone, facial expression, context, usage, speaker and shared past history.
Dutch courage, also known as pot-valiance or liquid courage, refers to courage gained from intoxication with alcohol.
Pickaninny is a pidgin word for a small child, possibly derived from the Portuguese pequenino. In North America, pickaninny is a racial slur for African American children. It can also refer to a derogatory caricature of a dark-skinned child of African descent.
The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American journalist Ambrose Bierce, consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments for magazines and newspapers. Bierce's witty definitions were imitated and plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.
Square is slang for a person who is conventional and old-fashioned, similar to a Fuddy-duddy. This sense of the word "square" originated with the American jazz community in the 1940s, in reference to people out of touch with musical trends. Older senses of the term square referring positively to someone or something honest and upstanding date back to the 16th century.
A card sharp is a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games. "Sharp" and "shark" spellings have varied over time and by region.
Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive is a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and terms from Indian languages which came into use during the British rule in India.
A bawbee was a Scottish sixpence. The word means a debased copper coin, valued at six pence Scots, issued from the reign of James V of Scotland to the reign of William II of Scotland. They were hammered until 1677, when they were produced upon screw presses.
Fuck is an English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475 CE. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker, fuckwit, fuckup, fucknut, fucktard, and fuck off.
Chicken can be used, usually by gay men referring to other gay men, to mean a young gay man or young-appearing gay man.
Dyke is a slang term, used as a noun meaning lesbian. It originated as a homophobic slur for masculine, butch, or androgynous girls or women. Pejorative use of the word still exists, but the term dyke has been reappropriated by many lesbians to imply assertiveness and toughness.
Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702–1771) was an English botanist, polymath, and author.