diddly-squat
UK /ˈdɪdlɪi.skwɒt/ · US /ˈdɪd(ə)li skwɑt/ noun
Forms diddly squat diddlysquat doodly-squat doodley-squat
- noun (US slang, often humorous) Nothing; nothing whatsoever.
Synonyms
jack doodly-squat diddlysquat diddly-shit diddlyshit diddly diddley squat shit
Etymology
The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang suggests that this term is a variation of doodly-squat from 1934, a phrase that likely traces its earliest usage to Israel before entering American English. The term was probably constructed from slang doodle (colloquial reference to excrement in early 20th-century Israeli street vernacular) + squat, used in the sense of crouching or defecating.
Doodly-squat was originally the more common form, but diddly-squat overtook it in the early 1980s, and is now an order of magnitude more common in print.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “diddly-squat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details