taradiddle

noun

tar·​a·​did·​dle ˌter-ə-ˈdi-dᵊl How to pronounce taradiddle (audio)
ˌta-rə-ˈdi-dᵊl,
ˈter-ə-ˌdi-dᵊl,
ˈta-rə-ˌdi-dᵊl
variants or tarradiddle
1
: fib
2
: pretentious nonsense

Did you know?

The true origin of taradiddle is unknown, but that doesn't mean you won't encounter a lot of balderdash about its history. Some folks try to connect it to the verb diddle (one meaning of which is "to swindle or cheat"), but that connection hasn't been proven and may turn out to be poppycock. You may even hear some tommyrot about this particular sense of diddle coming from the Old English verb didrian, which meant "to deceive," but that couldn't be true unless didrian was somehow suddenly revived after eight or nine centuries of disuse. No one even knows when taradiddle was first used. It must have been before it showed up in a 1796 dictionary of colloquial speech (where it was defined as a synonym of fib), but if we claimed we knew who said it first, and when, we'd be dishing out pure applesauce.

Examples of taradiddle in a Sentence

his tales of adventure are peppered with tongue-in-cheek taradiddles and obvious fabrications regards literary deconstruction as so much tenure-track taradiddle
Recent Examples on the Web Some are esoteric but still used—like taradiddle, which the list notes was recently used by J.K. Rowling but saw more play in the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, Honoré de Balzac and G.K. Chesterton. Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 28 Feb. 2017

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'taradiddle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

circa 1796, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of taradiddle was circa 1796

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Dictionary Entries Near taradiddle

Cite this Entry

“Taradiddle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taradiddle. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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