fidget

WOTD – 8 August 2010

From fidge (“to fidget”) +‎ *-et (frequentative ending), possibly from Middle English *-ten, from Old English -ettan.

fidget (third-person singular simple present fidgets, present participle fidgeting or (rare) fidgetting, simple past and past participle fidgeted or (rare) fidgetted)

(intransitive) To wiggle or twitch; to move the body, especially the fingers, around nervously or idly.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
  "Look, Jim, how my fingers fidget," he continued, in the pleading tone. "I can't keep e'm still, not I."
- 1993, Mike Leigh, Naked, spoken by Johnny (David Thewlis):
  Will you stop fucking about and fidgeting in my peripherals? I'm trying to concentrate.
(transitive) To cause to fidget; to make uneasy.
- 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 1, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
  “Do I fidget you ?” he asked apologetically, whilst his long bony fingers buried themselves, string, knots, and all, into the capacious pockets of his magnificent tweed ulster.

to move around nervously

Afrikaans: vroetel (af)
Bulgarian: шавам (bg) (šavam), въртя се (vǎrtja se)
Catalan: bellugar-se (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 坐立不安 (zh) (zuòlìbù'ān)
Dutch: friemelen (nl), de kriebels hebben
Esperanto: svingiĝi
Estonian: nihelema
Finnish: sätkiä (fi), sätkytellä (fi), nykiä (fi), nytkiä
French: gigoter (fr), remuer (fr)
German: zappeln (de), herumzappeln (de)
Hungarian: fészkelődik (hu), izeg-mozog (hu), babrál (hu), mocorog (hu)
Irish: bheith corrthónach, bheith giongach, bheith míshocair
Japanese: せかせかする
Khiamniungan Naga: tǖlālā
Korean: 안절부절못하다 (ko) (anjeolbujeolmothada)
Maori: oreore, mānānana, irirangi
Norwegian: sprelle
Polish: wiercić się impf
Portuguese: estar inquieto
Romanian: a se foi
Russian: ёрзать (ru) (jórzatʹ), верте́ться (ru) (vertétʹsja)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: врпо̀љити се

Roman: vrpòljiti se (sh)
Spanish: revolverse (es), no quedarse quieto, no parar de moverse, moverse nerviosamente, moverse compulsivamente
Tagalog: kuyakoy (tl)

fidget (plural fidgets)

a person who fidgets