G'day Frank Hamilton,

The other day you wrote: "I have read that "fiddle" is an older word. Something like "fidel" or faithful."

In fact, the ultimate source for both words is the Latin vitulari: "to celebrate a festival, be joyful". The faithful rendition in Latin comes to the Old English fithele through the Germanic language. The same word, more corrupted by post-Roman italicisation, come down throught the 'Romance' langauges to viel(l)e in Old French and on to viol... and its diminutive violin.

Like most of the "old" words that come from Latin to English directly - through Old Germanic - "fiddle" is now treated as inferior to the more corrupted form "violin", passed down via the "upper class" Romance languages. (Also keep in mind that the "v" in Latin was more like our English "w"!)

Regards,

Bob