Fuddy-duddy ("1872"); fuddy-duddy (a possible derivation)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 From Google Books:

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Letter from Elizabeth Prentiss to 'Miss Woolsey', 23 June 1872,
quoted in Elizabeth Prentiss and George L. Prentiss, _The Life and
Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss_ (Anson D. F. Randolph, New York, 1882), p.395:

<<M. and I have driven at our out-door work like a pair of
steam-engines, and you can imagine how dignified I am from the fact
that an old fuddy-duddy who does occasional jobs for me, summons me
to my window by a "Hullo!" beneath it, while G. says to us, "Where
are you girls going to sit this afternoon?">>

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This is the earliest example which I've seen of "fuddy-duddy" applied
to a person. I cannot be sure of the exact meaning however. Does it
mean "fussy [old] man", something like the current usage? Does it
mean "raggedy [old] man" reflecting "dud" = "rag"? Or something else?

"Fuddy-duddy" occurs in Ambrose Bierce's weird story "The Haunted
Valley" (1871), but only as the name[s] by which an eccentric
character addresses his pair of oxen ... not precisely interpretable
(by me, anyway) [at MoA (Michigan)].

One possibility: "fuddy-duddy" may have originated as an alteration
of "fusty dusty". I think "fusty dusty" is formally a version of
"rusty-fusty-dusty[-musty]" (which meant "dirty/dusty" when applied
to rooms, etc.). When applied to an individual it seems that the
sense was/is [not "filthy" but] something like "old and bookish"
(perhaps one who would be at home in a fusty-dusty library with
fusty-dusty old books) perhaps with evocation of "fussy".

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Thomas Wright, _Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English_ (Henry
G. Bohn, London, 1857): p. 816:

<<RUSTY-FUSTY-DUSTY, _s._ [sic] Excessively dirty; apparently a word
invented by Taylor, the Water-poet.>>

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A similar entry appears, with a Taylor quotation from 1630, in Farmer
and Henley.

"Fusty dusty" (adjective) when applied to a person or his interests
appears to be similar in meaning to "fuddy duddy" in several
examples, including some on the present-day Web. Here are a couple of
old ones. I have not, however, found an old example of "fusty-dusty" as a noun.

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Frank Lee Benedict, _The Price She Paid_ [novel] (F. V. White,
London, 1883): v. 2, p. 133:

<<"I am very fond of the country and mountain scenery, though I am a
fusty, dusty, man of law.">>

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_The Cambrian and Caledonian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic
Repertory_, Vol. 5 (London, 1833): p. 153:

<<There is an old, very false, very prevalent _scandal_ against
antiquarianism, as a narrow-minded, grubbing, fusty, dusty,
ridiculous kind of pursuit or _rage_. An antiquary! What is the image
conjured up even in _your_ mind, most enlightened reader of the
Cambrian Quarterly, at this moment, by that word? Is it not a
withered curmudgeon of a man, gloating on a long-buried medal or coin, ....>>

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-- Doug Wilson


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