fiddler, n.³ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fiddler n.³

[? the old custom of each couple at a dance paying the fiddler a farthing, and later sixpence]

1. a farthing.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: A ‘fiddler’ is used for a farthing as well as a sixpence, and the same explanation does for both. ‘Gig’ is a corruption of the word ‘Grig,’ and ‘Grig’ itself is a slang word for a merry little fellow.
1885		Household Words 20 June 155: Fiddler. This same word also does duty as equivalent to a farthing.
1937		Nott. Eve. Post 30 Apr. 6/3: Now we come to the humble farthing [...] it was soon turned into rhyming slang into ‘Covent Garden’. Other names are ‘quartareen’ [...] ‘fadge,’ ‘grig,’ and ‘fiddler’.

2. a sixpence.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: Sixpenny-pieces are fiddlers and tizzies.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1873		Sl. Dict. 160: Fiddler a sixpence . Fiddler’s money is small money; generally from the old custom of each couple at a dance paying the fiddler sixpence.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: For our next coin in value twenty names are found, viz: - ‘sixpence,’ ‘bandy,’ ‘broder,’ ‘cripple.’ ‘downer,’ ‘fiddler.’ ‘fyebuck,’ ‘half-hog,’ ‘kick,’ ‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘say saltee,' ’sprat,’ ‘snid,’ ‘simon,’ ‘sow's baby,’ ’tanner,’ tester,’ and ‘tizzy’.
1885		Household Words 20 June 155: Why a sixpence should be a magpie it would be hard to say. A more easily explained name is a fiddler. This probably derived from the old custom of each couple at a dance paying the fiddler sixpence, and, moreover, fiddlers money is generally small money [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 28: Fiddler, a sixpence.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

fiddler’s curse (n.)

see under not worth a curse phr.

fiddler’s damn (n.)

see under not care a tinker’s (curse) v.

fiddler’s fare (n.) [SE fare, the wages paid to an itinerant fiddler]

meat, drink and money.

1649		J. Taylor Wanderings to see Wonders of West 13: Mr. John Downs [...] gave me fiddlers fare, meat drink and money, for which I heartily thanked him.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 86: miss.: Did your Ladyship play? lady sm.: Yes, and won; so I came off with Fidler’s fare, Meat, Drink, and Money.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.:
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

fiddler’s fuck (n.)

(US) anything considered utterly insignificant, a damn n.; usu. in phr. not worth a fiddler’s fuck or not give a fiddler’s fuck

1961		H. Selby Jr Room 187: They ain’t worth a fiddlers fuck.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 183: It didnt make any difference why [...] Why didnt makes a fiddlers fuck.

fiddler’s green (n.)

(orig. naut.) paradise, a place of unlimited rum, women and tobacco, i.e. ‘nine miles this side (or the other side) of hell’.

1825		Sporting Mag. XVI. 404: My grannan [...] used to tell me that animals, when they departed this life, were destined to be fixed in Fidler’s Green.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 99: Oceans of punch, and rivers of rum, / Await the sailor at Fiddler’s Green.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 47: He would as soon go into Squire Egan’s house as go to Fiddler’s Green.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 280: ‘Ay, and to a pleasant journey to Fiddler’s Green,’ cries out the Captain.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 133: Fiddlers’ Green the place where sailors go to when they die. It is a place of fiddling, dancing, rum, and tobacco, and is undoubtedly the land of cocaigne, mentioned in mediæval manuscripts.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Apr. 5/4: A flippant person might say that he preferred striking out for ‘Fiddler’s Green,’ just as an unconverted negro observed [...] that he would probably ‘Take to de bush’.
1884		Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea IV iv: Jack Gaunt [...] Its thanks to you I’ve got my papers, and this time I’m shipped for Fiddlers Green.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Dec. 26/4: Then the purple disappears, / And only the blue is seen, / That will send our bones down to Davy Jones, / And our souls to Fiddler’s Green.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 7/3: All the black devils of Fiddler’s Green couldn’t wake him when once he drops off.
1918		R.D. Paine Fighting Fleets 327: Straight these drowned seamen went to Fiddler’s Green where the souls of all good mariners go.
1925		(con. 1899) H.P. Bailey Shanghaied Out of Frisco 65: Why, yew jest go to Fiddlers Green and hunt grass.
1967		S. Hugill Sailortown xxii: May they help the reader to wander round the streets of Fiddler’s Green, and relive, to the fullest, the shore life of that [...] tarry roisterer, Sailor John.
2005		H.D. Stabler No One Ever Asked Me 33: And put your pistol to your head And go to Fiddler’s Green.

fiddler’s money (n.) [the paucity or actual lack of fiddlers’ pay]

small change.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fidler’s money, all sixpences, sixpence being the usual sum paid by each couple for music at country wakes and hops.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 139: FIDDLER’S MONEY, a lot of sixpences.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1860].

fiddler’s pay (n.) [i.e. no actual money]

wine and thanks.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Fidlers-pay Thanks and Wine.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1879		Huddersfield Chron. 19 Apr. 5/5: I came here [...] working for the public good, for which I got fiddlers' pay - viz, more kicks than half-pence.

fiddler’s wages (n.)

no wages at all, but simply a thank-you.

1597

Return from Parnassus Pt I I i: He [...] gave me fidler’s wages, and dismiste mee .

In phrases

not give a fiddler’s fuck (v.) (also ...a fiddler’s fart, ...a flying fiddler’s mickey, ...a fiddler’s screw in hell, ...a fiddler’s so-and-so, not care a...)

(orig. US) to not care at all.

1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 25: We could all rot to death, and they wouldn’t give a fiddler’s so-and-so for us.
1962		B. Behan Brendan Behan’s Island (1984) 44: The Owner turned and roared at me: ‘I don’t care a fiddler’s ---k where it’s being held’.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 1467: Nobody gave a fiddler’s fuck for your connections.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 461: I don’t give a fiddler’s screw in hell who they trust.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 92: I never gave a flying fiddler’s mickey about maths either.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 144: I couldn’t give a fiddler’s fuck. Lad has a rare pair of lungs.
2023		T. Pluck What Pluckery Is This? 1 Feb. 🌐 I don’t give a fiddler’s fart or a tinker’s damn about Hollywood anymore.

fiddler n.3

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

fiddler n.³