#1015 Kerfuffling

A while back I was reading a news article and the writer used an intriguing word. Kerfuffle. As in, “after the kerfuffle was over about Biden’s remarks...”
And I finally asked myself, is this a word that just sprang full blown from some commentator’s head? Because it sounds suspiciously Snoop Doggy, like “For Shizzle.” But I seemed to remember it from some old English mystery book I’d read a long time ago. And I’ve noticed it since with increasing regularity. An old word become new, as fashions in words do.
Cool, maybe we’ll be saying “keen” again real soon, hep cats.
Kerfuffle can mean a dust-up or a mild fracas. Or possibly a to-do, as in much to-do over nothing. Some folks spell it kerfluffle. The online etymology dictionary says it was first used in Canada around 1930, so it’s a relatively recent coinage, but it actually comes from an older Scottish word “curfuffle” which means disorder. Today it usually means a fuss or a disturbance.
I just think it’s a fun word to say. Partly because it sounds like so many other things. Like perhaps a waffle restaurant of some sort. “Oh Daddy, can we go to the kerfuffle house?”
“You bet honey, I love their Belgian kerfuffles.”
Or maybe it’s more like those things they decorate cakes with. Like roses made out of frosting. “Did you see the kerfuffles on that cake? They were incredibly realistic.”
Then again, it sounds like something someone might name their cat. “Here Kerfuffle...where’s my snoogie-woogie Kerfuffle hiding?”
Or possibly a clown. “Ladies and Gentleman in a death-defying feat, being shot out of a giant t-shirt cannon, it’s Kerfuffle the Clown!”
Or maybe it’s those things that are kind of pleated and foofy at the bottom of curtains. “What lovely drapes Mrs. Robinson. And they have such delicate kerfuffles.”
Or some sort of iPod feature for the Twitter crowd to randomly sort their messages. “I set my iPod to kerfuffle.”
But my first thought, of course, was that it was a euphemism for passing you know what.
“All right...who kerfuffled?”
A disturbance indeed...
America, ya gotta love it.