Don’t know nothing? Get help from diddly-squat

Some words mean nothing, others can mean anything, and some can mean either.

Comments I saw somewhere yesterday about double negatives—it was evidently aimed at people who don’t know nothing—made me think of a convenient word that can mean and replace both anything and nothing. 

Some people might not know diddly-squat about such words, in which case they would also know diddly-squat about such words.

The function of diddly-squat can, of course, be performed by things such as shit and bubkis, those also being able to replace both anything and nothing, depending upon whether the sense of the expression is negative or positive, respectively.

Care is required in the extended application of such expressions, as not knowing your ass from a hole in the ground is different from knowing your ass from a hole in the ground. 

And now back to our regular programming.

Author: William Lise

Long-term (49-plus years) resident of Japan. Former electrical engineer and have been translating and interpreting for over four decades.