Fiddles

[keithandpam]

Here's a question for you, we all know what fiddles are (don't we?) but where did the term originate. After much googling and wi-ikepedia I can't find the origin of the phrase which is keeping me awake of an afternoon.....anyone out there with a suggestion?

 

[bilbobaggins]

'Sawlrite for some, lying feet-up in the Tunisian sun, pondering whether to send out for another cold beer or three, or to roll over and snooze until Sundowners' Time.

Oh, yes, and plan next week's social calendar....


( Thanks to Dan for sorting out the logins for this poor old chappie! ) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[yoty]

Its wot they do down the social every Thursday to get more beer tokens init?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Is it coz originally they were fretworky types of things, and fiddly to make?

 

[sarabande]

I suspect that it is a corruption of "fid" which is a bar of wood or metal placed on something to support something else above it.

so...

"a fidded table" which with a Bristol dialect becomes "fiddled".


Much as we corrupt "faking a chain" to "flaking".

 

[keithandpam]

Its o/k for u billbo but its over 40 deg here so we have drink lots

 

[Twister_Ken]

I thought a fid was was a tapered open-faced cylinder, used for forcing apart strands of rope when splicing.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's a question for you, we all know what fiddles are (don't we?) but where did the term originate. After much googling and wi-ikepedia I can't find the origin of the phrase which is keeping me awake of an afternoon.....anyone out there with a suggestion?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I would have thought the obvious candidate is the latin 'fidicula', a small stringed instrument from which is derived 'vitula' or 'vidula', the viola or violin. So fiddle-blocks simple look like violins, and cooker fiddles presumably reminded some early stove designer of a violin string ....

Vitula was also the Roman goddess of victory or jubilation, so maybe it has something to do with having achieved success in eventually finding a method of keeping a pot on the stove.

But could also be from the Middle English 'fidel' or 'fithel', or even from the German 'fiedler' (a violin player), from which is derived 'fiedelbrett' - a squeaky violin .... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Guest]

Just found this:

"Ever wondered about the fiddle rail? It got its name because the very earliest were made of string stretched tight between pegs, much like a fiddle."
http://www.yacht-volant.org/SailorTalk/seaterms12.html

 

[BobnLesley]

..a fid was was a tapered open-faced cylinder, used for forcing apart strands of rope when splicing...

Which with their cylindrical handles were forever rolling off the edge of the table, to avoid this they possibly fitted the 'Fid Rails' mentioned earlier hence 'fiddles' /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[yoty]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Here's a question for you, we all know what fiddles are (don't we?) but where did the term originate. After much googling and wi-ikepedia I can't find the origin of the phrase which is keeping me awake of an afternoon.....anyone out there with a suggestion?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I would have thought the obvious candidate is the latin 'fidicula', a small stringed instrument from which is derived 'vitula' or 'vidula', the viola or violin. So fiddle-blocks simple look like violins, and cooker fiddles presumably reminded some early stove designer of a violin string ....

Vitula was also the Roman goddess of victory or jubilation, so maybe it has something to do with having achieved success in eventually finding a method of keeping a pot on the stove.

But could also be from the Middle English 'fidel' or 'fithel', or even from the German 'fiedler' (a violin player), from which is derived 'fiedelbrett' - a squeaky violin .... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Bleeding 'ell - can't I jus go down't social?

 

[NPMR]

"On the fiddle" came from jack tar trying to take too much grub, so it overflowed the 'fiddle' of his (square) plate, or so I read somewhere.

Doesn't answer the original question but, hey, I have nothing else to add!