A kerfuffle is a fuss, bother, or disturbance. It’s from Scots curfuffle, likely from Scottish Gaelic car, meaning “turn,” “bend,” or “twist,” plus fuffle, a Scots word that means “to disorder” or “to ruffle.” Early forms like carfuffle and curfuffle meant “to disarrange or throw into confusion,” and the emphatic car- prefix adds the sense of more disorder. The modern spelling arrived in English in the early 20th century. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Kerfuffle Means a Fuss, Bother, or Disturbance and Comes from Scots and Scottish Gaelic”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, I’m in Jacksonville, Florida, and my name is Sissy Bear, C I S S Y, Bear, B E A R.
Doctor.
Hi, Sissy.
Welcome to the program.
What’s up?
Thank you.
Well, I’m very curious about this word kerfuffle, and I’ve used it forever.
Don’t remember where I even heard it originally.
And, so that’s what I’d like to know about this word, kerfuffle.
My definition would be a dust up.
It’s like there’s a dust duct either way.
Great word.
Can I tell you a very quick funny story?
We can I tell you something about kerfuffle that’s very strange?
Yes.
We just met just this past week, we had family in from, Nebraska that we had never met.
The oldest was in her fifties, a teacher, and then her first one of her daughters, one of many, many people in the family.
She’s a teacher.
She told me the first word she writes on the board is her favorite word to encourage her class to consider a word that they consider, a favorite.
And what was the word?
Kerfuffle.
I almost fell over.
Oh, that’s cool.
So the both of you had a thing to bond, a language to bond about right away.
Isn’t that weird?
That’s cool.
That’s wonderful.
Martha has never been in a dust up or kerfuffle her whole life, but I think she knows some stuff about it.
Okay.
Well, I think it is what it sounds like.
It’s a dust up, you know?
Yeah.
Dust up is a wonderful word for it, Sissy.
I mean, it’s kind of an informal word that means something like, you know, a fuss or a commotion or a minor It’s not that terrible.
Its origin is Scottish.
It actually comes from the Scots word kerfuffle, c u r f u f f l e, which in turn is thought to be related to a much older word in Scottish Gaelic – car, c a r, meaning to turn or bend or twist, plus fuffle, which is a Scots word that means to disorder or ruffle.
And so there were early versions of this word in Scotland like carfuffle and curfuffle, c u r f u f f l e, and curfuffla, and it just meant to disarrange or throw into confusion.
Like you could curfuffle somebody’s hair, you know, just to tease them or their clothing.
And the modern kerfuffle, k e r f u f f l e, didn’t come around in English usage until the early twentieth century.
It’s maybe influenced by words like kraplunk and krathump.
Yeah, that cart prefix is pretty interesting because when it’s used that way on a root like fufl, f u f f l e, it becomes emphatic and it kind of loses some of the idea of twisting or bending.
And so it just means more of whatever it’s attached to.
In this case, it means more, more disorder, more chaos.
Okay, okay.
But still kind of mild.
Mild.
Yeah.
It’s not the other Right?
The kerfuffle is something you can handle.
It’s not like a disaster which you may not be able to handle.
Yeah, that’s a good Right.
Way to put Well, thank you so much for sharing with us, and call us again sometime.
Right?
You take care now.
And stay out of those kerfuffles.
All right.
Take care now.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
No more dust stops.
Bye bye.
All righty.
Bye.
Toll free in The U.
S.
And Canada.
