Who's diddling and how? (again)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 7/14/08 10:57:07 AM, Berson at ATT.NET writes:


> 
> Perhaps one could substitute "fuck" and get an understandable meaning -- but 
> it might be different..  I go for both 2.a. and 2.b.  My first assumption to 
> hearing "diddle" is masturbate, probably from my callow youth in the 1950s.  
> Any mix of genders, in either role; and "he/she diddled" or "diddled 
> him/herself" for the solo situation.  In 1 (glazier), I change my assumption when 
> hearing the rest of the sentence.
> 

My introduction to DIDDLE in the 1950s was strongly marked by the words of a 
bawdy song: "I diddled her once and I diddled her twice and I diddled her once 
too often: I broke the mainspring in her ass, and now she's in a coffin." 
That does not sound like masturbation to me. The other use I was familiar with in 
the 1950s was close in meaning to FIDGIT or FOOL, as in "He diddled around so 
long that when he finally asked her to the prom she had already agreed to go 
with someone else" and "He diddled around with the broken watch and got it 
running again."


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