FIDDLESTICK

PRONUNCIATION: (FI-duhl-stik)

MEANING: noun: 1. The bow with which the fiddle is played.
2. Something insignificant.
interj.: Nonsense. (typically used as a plural)

ETYMOLOGY: From fiddle, from Old English fithele + stick, from Old English sticca. Earliest documented use: 1400s.

NOTES: The use of the word to refer to something of little value may be related to the fact that the verb fiddle has a contemptuous meaning: to fiddle is to do something frivolous, to do something aimlessly. How did the bow of a violin end up being a synonym for nonsense? No one knows, but any comedian would tell you that words ending in a K sound are funny. And when you have a word starting with F and ending in K, well, it would be a crime not to employ it as an interjection
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FIDDLETICK - something is rattling in my Stradivarius

FIDDLESTINK - my violin smells awful

RIDDLESTICK - a scytale