Fwd: "quiddle, v." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Subject: "quiddle, v." - Word of the Day from the OED
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Your word for today is: quiddle, v.

quiddle, v.
[‘ intr. To discourse or expound upon a subject in a trifling or
frivolous manner.Obs.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈkwɪdl/,  U.S. /ˈkwɪd(ə)l/
Forms:  15 quiddell,   15– quiddle.
Etymology:Origin uncertain, perhaps an expressive formation; compare
-le suffix 3, and also earlier twiddle v.1, fiddle v. 3, piddle v.,
etc. With sense 3 compare earlier quibble v.1
 Now rare (chiefly U.S. regional (New England)).
†1.  intr. To discourse or expound upon a subject in a trifling or
frivolous manner.Obs.
In quot. a1566 perh.: to sing an improvised descant above a tune or theme.
a1566  R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1571) sig. Fivv, Set out your
bussyng base, and wee wyll quiddell vpon it.
1587  A. Fleming et al.  Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin.
1275/2 Which name of the Marishes, Marshes, or Moores, if it like them
to expound it, as I doubt not but manie will quiddle therevpon.
 2.  trans. To fiddle or play about with.
a1652  R. Brome City Wit iii. i. sig. C4, in Five New Playes (1653),
Cras. How does she feel your hand? Lin. O, she does so quiddle it,
shake it, and gripe it!
1696  M. Pix Spanish Wives ii. 14 What! have a Surgeon quiddling her
white Arm, and looking Babies in her Eyes!
1779  ‘Peeping Tim’ Honest London Spy ii. iii. 58 After an hour and a
half's unnecessary quiddling her ornaments, he could perceive
no..alteration for the better.
1854  J. S. H. Pardoe Reginald Lyle iii. 82 Now don't sit quiddling
the string of your cap, but listen to me attentively.
1981  G. Davenport Eclogues 161 It made Victor, who was quiddling his
foreskin while sipping his coffee, look at me cross-eyed.
 3.  intr. To quibble or cavil about insignificant details; to fuss;
(also) to busy oneself with unimportant matters or trivial tasks; to
fritter away time.
1789  F. Ames Let. 8 July in Wks. (1854) I. 61 We correct spelling, or
erase may and insert shall, and quiddle in a manner which provokes me.
1829 Virginia Lit. Museum 30 Dec. 460 To quiddle. ‘To busy one's self
about trifles.’ The word is used as a substantive.
1856 Punch Feb. 50/1 Don't be led away to quirk and quiddle with negotiations.
1871  L. M. Alcott Little Men ii. 22 Daisy..liked to quiddle about the
china-closet, prepare the salt-cellars, put the spoons straight on the
table.
1898  ‘M. Grey’ Ribstone Pippins 40 A quiddles over his cloase.
a1903  H. Kingsford in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 681/2 S. Worcester
They others keeps a quiddling at it.
1970 N.Y. Times 17 May 8/7, I drove my Jeep to a lonely beach and
there amidst other jetsam prepared to quiddle away an hour at fishing
for striped bass.
2000  in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (2002) IV. 415/1 Quiddle—‘to busy
oneself with unimportant things’. A student heard it from an aunt in
Connecticut and another heard it she thinks from friends in Maine
‘just quiddling around’.
Derivatives

†quiddler n. Obs.
1832  Webster Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word), Quiddler.
1842–4  H. D. Thoreau Jrnl. (1984) II. 77 Drummond was indeed a
quiddler—with little fire or fibre—and rather a taste for poetry than
a taste of it.
1871  N. Nutgall Raven Club Papers 41 It is perfectly maddening to
realise what a lot of pre-eminent quiddlers we are. Never was there a
people so imposingly great for the absolute magnitude of its
littleness.

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