how are you diddling

English

Etymology

Popularised by comedian Ken Dodd (1927–2018).

Phrase

how are you diddling?

1. (UK, colloquial, humorous, dated) How are you doing?
   • 1905 October 21, “King of wild beast merchants, Cross, Liverpool. Wonderful talking grey parrot”, in The Illustrated London News, volume 127, number 347, page 588:

     Repeats many sentences and hundreds of words, including the following: […] “Hello, are you working? How are you diddling?”

   • 1983 December 25, John Sullivan, “Thicker than Water” (2:52 from the start), in Only Fools and Horses (television production), spoken by Reg Trotter (Peter Woodthorpe), via BBC1:

     Hello old 'un, how you diddling?

   • 2019 January 14, Sara Cox, Sara Cox (radio broadcast), via BBC Radio 2:

     Yo yo yo. How are you diddling then? And wasn't Zoe fantastic this morning?