The 2025 Separated by a Common Language UK-to-US Word of the Year is:
fiddly
Interesting slate of UK to US candidates, especially “soccer.” Didn’t realize about shrinkflation. Fiddly definitely.
chiefly British: requiring close attention to detail : fussyespecially : requiring an annoying amount of close attention… the tiny control buttons on the back are fiddly.—M. J. McNamara
As a -y adjective, it's a little odd, since -y is usually added to nouns. Fiddly derives (according to the OED) from the verb fiddle 'To make aimless or frivolous movements' (OED), not the noun. That verb does ultimately come from the noun fiddle, but that's not what's relevant to a suffix that usually attaches to nouns. The suffix wants something that's a noun now, as in cinnamon-y or snowy. But the OED tells us of -y adjectives:
Later new derivatives tend in a large measure to be colloquial, undignified, or trivial,as bumpy, dumpy, flighty, hammy, liney, loopy, lumpy, ungy, messy, oniony, treey, verminy, vipery; some are from verbs, as dangly.
Fiddly only came into being in the early 20th century, the period of "colloquial, undignified, or trivial" -y adjectives. And indeed the OED marks fiddly as "colloquial".
I'll be happy to have it in AmE, as it is undeniably useful. The Collins thesaurus offers some synonyms:
pernickety (=AmE persnickety), tricky, detailed, fine, exacting
I think tricky would work best for some of the things I call fiddly, but tricky seems to connote a challenge, rather than a hassle. Fiddly is all hassle, dexterity, and attention to detail.
Congratulations, fiddly. You've made it.
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ReplyDeleteI claim my prize for spotting the deliberate mistake: The opening sentence has it backwards: it is not the US to UK woty!
ReplyDeleteNow fixed, thanks!
DeleteI love "fiddly"; it's specific but also multi-purpose.
ReplyDelete"Fiddly" in that sense is not something that I (US English) find unusual. It's a pretty standard part of my vocabulary (and I think that's nothing new). That bit is (notoriously unreliable) anecdotal. But here's a thread on Board Game Geek from 2010 with comments from mostly US people who are using the term consistently:
ReplyDeletehttps://boardgamegeek.com/thread/531297/what-makes-a-game-fiddly
It's possible that the US usage is jargon, though I also have "fiddly bullsh*t" as very standard, which feels pretty AmE to me.
Related, I think, is "fiddle-farting around", which I see referenced as "Mostly Southern US".
My (U.S.) family has used this word for decades. I didn't know it was considered British. To me, something that's fiddly isn't necessarily annoying, if you like fiddling with things (say, some little craft you're doing, or hanging pictures on a wall and repeatedly rearranging them). It does have a sense of possibly having to do and redo the thing, or of not knowing if it will come out right. It also is often done on a small scale. Making pastries could be fiddly; a carpentry project probably is not. Maybe when the scale increases, you're heading more toward puttering.
ReplyDeleteNow you see, in British English - well, to me, anyway - it denotes something that is small and difficult, like threading a needle, or trying to refill my mini salt-grinder, or trying to tighten the hinge screw of my spectacles! I found trying to get the top on to my coffee grinder this morning was definitely fiddly....
DeleteI share that view of fiddly being on a small scale - indeed I'd say necessarily so. I was suprised to see the list of entries including things like "big and fiddly", which feels contradictory to me. I can imagine an item which might be both, but as a BrE speaker, is definitely be adding detail, e.g. "it's too big and the buttons too fiddly".
ReplyDeleteThings I would naturally think of as fiddly are threading a needle, or replacing a fuse in a plug: things which require nimble finger dexterity.
I (American) didn't have a problem with "it was left in the hotel room because it's too big and fiddly" given the further context that it was a camera. Sounds like it was both big and required fiddly adjustments.
ReplyDeleteAs an Australian big and fiddly seem to contradict each other. Fiddly to me indicates difficulty due to its small size like threading a needle of working with tiny components in an electronic or mechanical device.
ReplyDelete