fiddle
fiddle as fit as a fiddle in very good health. The phrase (with the related fine as a fiddle) is recorded from the early 17th century, and probably derives from the emphasis given by alliteration (compare the archaic fine as fivepence).
fiddle while Rome burns be concerned with relatively trivial matters while ignoring the serious or disastrous events going on around one; the original reference is to the behaviour of the emperor Nero, who according to Suetonius sang the whole of ‘The Sack of Ilium’ in his preferred stage costume to celebrate the beauty of the flames as Rome burned.
The first use of fiddle in this allusion is found in George Daniel's Trinarchodia (1649).
play second fiddle have a subordinate role to someone or something; be treated as less important than someone or something.
see also there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle.
fiddle while Rome burns be concerned with relatively trivial matters while ignoring the serious or disastrous events going on around one; the original reference is to the behaviour of the emperor Nero, who according to Suetonius sang the whole of ‘The Sack of Ilium’ in his preferred stage costume to celebrate the beauty of the flames as Rome burned.
The first use of fiddle in this allusion is found in George Daniel's Trinarchodia (1649).
play second fiddle have a subordinate role to someone or something; be treated as less important than someone or something.
see also there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle.
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fiddle