kerfuffle

Aug. 27th, 2012 07:18 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
kerfuffle (kuhr-FUH-fuhl) - n., (inform.) (chiefly British) a commotion, disorderly outburst, disturbance, commotion, tumult.


This is chiefly British usage, but for what it's worth it is nativized to my own idiolect. Can also be verbed in Scottish usage -- for this is indeed a word of Scottish origin. Until the 1960s it had a variety of spellings, including curfuffle, carfuffle, cafuffle, and gefuffle, before settling on the initial k- version, from Scottish Gaelic car, twist, turn + fuffle, to disarrangem, of unknown origin. There are cognates in Irish Gaelic cior thual and Welsh cythrwfl.

---L.

May 2026

S M T W T F S
      12
3 4 5 6 7 89
10 111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 12th, 2026 12:50 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios