Is 'ditzel' a real word?
Jargon, apparently.
According to David A Cory (emphasis mine),
Although not found in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, the term ditzel is universally recognized among radiologists as a very small nodule found in the lung. ... The origins of this word are obscure. The only similar word I could find, ditz, emerged in the 1970s to describe a silly or inane person, and it seems unlikely that ditz morphed into ditzel. Even though ditzel does not appear in any dictionary, the word has been used in at least one article in the medical literature, specifically in the Yellow Journal.
The original citation from Cory in his blog post:
Mundsen RF, Hess KR. “Ditzels” on Chest CT: Survey of Members of the Society of Thoracic Radiology. AJR 2001; 176:1363-1369.
There is a Russian jargon term «децл», pronounced as /'dɛtzɘl/, which means exactly «a little» and is thought to be originating from the word «deciliter». Here's the Wiktionary page, which might be helpful if you either know Russian or are willing to feed the link to Google Translate.
I doubt it's what you're looking for since this word is unlikely to be used in English context, and I personally prefer Tim's answer, but I felt I should've mentioned it for the sake of completeness.
From "The Yiddish Handbook":
bissel
Or bisl – a little bit.
My mom used to use all kinds of Yiddish words that I thought she had made up. This one rang a bell with me. :-)
In surgery we use the term "ditzel" to mean "a little nothing" or a piece of small, inconsequential tissue. For example, surgeon wipes instrument on sponge, leaving small globule of tissue. Nurse asks "Is this a specimen?", surgeon replies "No, just a ditzel. " Meaning it's nothing, junk, unknown and can be ignored.
Ditzl or Ditzel: I have also heard that word used in the context of something small and not of consequence. I thought it was German, or Yiddish, and I have used it for many years. Maybe I picked it up talking to surgeons or radiologists in hospital settings, but I think I picked it up in non-medical situations.
I pronounce it Ditz as in "ditsy" (silly inane person), and "L" or ditz-(e)l. I grew up in Upstate NY, near Buffalo. Lots of Polish and German roots there.