One of the strings on a fiddle or violin; also figuratively, something delicate or easily broken.
Compound of 'fiddle' and 'string.' The strings on violins are famously delicate and require careful handling, making them a metaphor for fragile things.
Violin strings are genuinely delicate—they break if overtightened—so calling something a 'fiddlestring' warned people it required careful handling, making it one of the rare old words that encoded actual physical safety information.
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