Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fussy, pernickety, narrow-minded.

1904		Lit. World Oct. 288/2: I do like to hear the fuddy- duddy little stay-at-homes and reformers try to reform the world.
1942		J. Mitchell ‘Professor Sea Gull’ in Joe Gould’s Secret (1996) 18: A fuddy-duddy old maid’s game.
1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 229: Him and old fuddy-duddy Solomon over there.
1971		N. Smith Gumshoe (1998) 144: ‘Out goes old-style, fuddy-duddy, Board of Trade,’ she said.
1985		J. Briskin Too Much Too Soon (1986) 353: She did not condone Gideon’s fuddy-duddy regulations.
1991		I. Goodson Biography Identity and Schooling 85: I never wanted to be a teacher myself because all women teachers seemed sort of frumpish and fuddy-duddy and boring.
2006		E. Stafford Perfect Christmas 15: Spending all day in an old stinky car, with your fuddy-duddy sister and her fuddy-duddy friend.