the stem of TWEEDLE v., employed in combination with other elements (see below) to denote the action of the verb, or a high-pitched musical sound; chiefly in the humorous phrase Tweedledum and tweedledee, in the earliest example used in reference to two rival musicians (whence the fig. sense: see b); tweedledee and tweedledum (also tweedle-dum), used to suggest the contrast or combination of the sounds of high- and low-pitched musical instruments; hence in quot. 1792 attrib. = musical (obs.); tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum, a high-, or a low-pitched instrument, or one who plays it; in quots. 1785, 1806, 1826, a fiddler (obs.); tweedle-tweedle, the action or practice of tweedling; music, harmony (obs.).
1725. Byrom, Handel & Bononcini, Poems 1773, I. 344. Strange all this Difference should be, ’Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!
1769. Trinculo’s Trip, 47. Squeeking fife and rumbling drum, Tweedle dee—and tweedle dum.
1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars, Recit. vi. He taks the fiddler by the beard, And draws a roosty rapier—… Wi’ ghastly ee, poor tweedle-dee Upon his hunkers bended.
1786. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Bozzy & Piozzi, 70. Great in the noble art of tweedle-tweedle. Ibid. (1792), Odes Condol., i. 61. No longer on the tweedle-dum account … Those Men of Taste and Music joyful greet.
1804. J. Collins (title), Scripscrapologia; or Collins’s Doggerel Dish of All Sorts. Consisting of Songs … which may be sung without … the ravishing Accompaniments of Tweedle-dum or Tweedle-dee.
1805. Mrs. Grant, in Campbell, Mem. & Corr. (1844), I. 59. Two hours of tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee were too much for me.
1806. Lamb, Lett. to Manning, 5 Dec. Mary and I are to sit next the orchestra in the pit, next the tweedledees.
1826. F. Reynolds, Life & Times, II. 288. Two ordinary violin players … quarrelled … to such a pitch, that each tweedle-dum offered the opposing tweedle-dee, to play him for his whole year’s salary.
b. fig., usually in phrase tweedledee and tweedledum, two things or parties the difference between which is held to be insignificant. Also attrib.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., v. (1876), 304. Swift could not see the difference between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum.
1871. Mrs. Brookfield, Influence, I. 76. Do you believe in tweedledee or in tweedledum?
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. x. 218. To the ears of Mopsy and Dopsy it was all tweedledum, and tweedledee.
1885. Spectator, 24 Jan., 119/2. By no effort of the mind can we separate tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.
1886. Pall Mall G., 29 Sept., 2/2. The general public need have no special objection to half-pay officers and local Bumbles spending their superfluous time and money in Tweedledum and Tweedledee quarrels.
1889. Spectator, 14 Dec., 850. The political instinct … which leads Lord Randolph … to discover a Tory Tweedledee for the Radical Tweedledum.
1911. Chr. Endeavour Times, 10 Aug., 724/1. A … war of words over tweedledees of subtle doctrinal differences and tweedledums of Church polity.
Hence Tweedle-dee v. intr., to play or sing in a high-pitched tone; also, to play idly; to tweedle.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. vi. While right-arms here grew weary of slaying, right-arms there were twiddledeeing on melodious catgut.
1873. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 299. A sandy-haired German tenor tweedledeeing over the unspeakable woes of Sigurd!
