Widdy vs Biddy - What's the difference?
widdy | biddy |
(Scotland) A rope or halter made of flexible twigs, or withes, as of birch.
* 1877 —
(pejorative) A woman, especially an old woman; especially one regarded as fussy or mean or a gossipy busybody.
(uncommon) An attractive little girl.
(senseid)(archaic, colloquial) An Irish maidservant.
(by extension, derogatory) Any Irishwoman
A name used in calling a hen or chicken, often as "biddy-biddy-biddy".
* 1915 Burgess, Thornton W. , The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel , Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, Ch. XI:
(label)
As nouns the difference between widdy and biddy
is that widdy is a rope or halter made of flexible twigs, or withes, as of birch while biddy is a woman, especially an old woman; especially one regarded as fussy or mean or a gossipy busybody.As a proper noun Biddy is
a diminutive of the female given name Bridget.widdy
English
Etymology 1
Compare (withy).Noun
(widdies)Etymology 2
Noun
(widdies)- I'm no saucy minx and giddy—
Hussies such as them abound—
But a clean and tidy widdy
Well be-known for miles around.
biddy
English
Etymology 1
Derived from (m), diminutive form of (m). It came to be generic name for an Irish maid (US), and then an old woman.Noun
(biddies)- (Shakespeare)
- "Well, we'll see about it by and by," said Farmer Brown's boy. "There's the breakfast bell, and I haven't fed the biddies yet."