Englishfit as a fiddle
Meaning: in excellent physical condition; healthy.
Example: “After his knee surgery, Grandpa is fit as a fiddle again.”
Origin: The alliteration is doing much of the work, but the older meanings make far better sense of the phrase than the modern ones do. When it was formed, "fit" did not mean physically healthy — that sense only became common in the 1800s — but apt, suitable, well-made for its purpose. An earlier version ran "fine as a fiddle," recorded around 1603, with "fit as a fiddle" appearing by 1616. A fiddle was a reasonable standard of excellence to invoke: a well-made instrument, properly strung and in tune, was a precise and admired object, while one out of tune was conspicuously useless. As "fit" drifted toward its modern sense of bodily health, the idiom drifted along with it, and now reads as a claim about physical condition that it did not originally make.
Equivalents in other languages
French: Comme le Pont-Neuf Literally: Like the Pont Neuf
More English idioms
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- a nose for something a talent for finding or recognizing something; keen instinct.
- throw in the towel to give up; to concede defeat.
- the real McCoy the genuine article; something authentic and high quality.
- cry over spilled milk to regret something past; useless to grieve over unchangeable events.
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