Diddy

I’m not referring to any singer with the word ‘Diddy’ in his name, I’m thinking of the word which is not defined in many dictionaries, but certainly exists in Northern England. It means little, and it probably first came to public attention by the entertainer Ken Dodd who had ‘diddy men’ in his TV show. He had started referring to the diddy men, the imaginary inhabitants of Knotty Ash, an area of Liverpool in his stage show; when he moved to TV the diddy men arrived as actual characters played by puppets or small men. Thewy were supposed to work in the jam butty mines (jam sandwich mines!) A BBC disc jockey, David Hamilton, was nicknamed Diddy David Hamilton by Dodd and the name stuck.

Apparently… although I have never come across it, diddy can also mean titty, or be used to describe someone who is a fool.  I’m sure sean Combes didn’t realise this when he used the name of Puff or P.Diddy!! Just an extra little use, there was also the chorus of a song by Manfred Mann ‘Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do’.