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fuddle-duddle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
fuddle-duddle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
fuddle-duddle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From fuddle, after fuddy-duddy, but development of meaning unclear. Perhaps from the interjection coined by Pierre Trudeau (see next etymology).
Verb
fuddle-duddle (third-person singular simple present fuddle-duddles, present participle fuddle-duddling, simple past and past participle fuddle-duddled)
- To depart, to be off.
Etymology 2
There is an example of the phrase's use in the early 1940s, in "Mother Finds a Body", by Gypsy Rose Lee: "...when asks me where I was on the night of so-and-so, I'll tell him to go fuddle his duddle".
However the expression fuddle-duddle is attributed to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada, who according to some sources said it in parliament on 16 February 1971 and repeated it when pressed by television reporters about using profanity in respect to members of Parliament (Canadian House of Commons).
Interjection
fuddle-duddle
- (euphemistic, originally Canada) Fuck! Fuck off!
1971, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, (Please provide the book title or journal name):What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say “fuddle duddle” or something like that?
Further reading