To continue from my last post, http://www.sheetmusicdigital.com/musicdictionaryletterU.asp describes an 'umakweyana' as "a one string gourd instrument played by the women of Swaziland." Since most African descendants of African Americans came from West and Central Africa, that traditional instrument's name probably isn't the source of the name "diddley bow". I'm sure that there are hundreds of different names for these types of instruments throughout West and Central Africa.
I'm still trying to find out where the name "diddley bow" came from.
Maybe one or more of those African names for this type of instruments sounded {sounds}like "diddley".
However, if I were a betting person-which I'm not-I'd bet the far-that I don't own anyway-that the name "diddley came from the English language. I mean "bow" did. So why not "diddley'?
diddle "to cheat, swindle," 1806, from dial. duddle, diddle "to totter" (1632). Meaning "waste time" is recorded from 1825. Meaning "to have sex with" is from 1879; that of "to masturbate" (especially of women) is from 1950s. More or less unrelated meanings that have gathered around a suggestive sound".
-snip-
Hmmmm.
Well, I can see how people might think that playing with that homemade musical instrument attached to a door or a board or would be wasting time. And as to the other referent, well....I'll just say that none of this may mean 'diddly squat' {or as we used to say in New Jersey-'doodley squat'}, but where the name "diddley bow" came from is getting clearer.