Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Definitions for kerfuffle
- Chiefly British Informal. a fuss; commotion.
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Citations for kerfuffle
... I speculated that Larsson ... might have “overcaffeinated himself to death.” This caused quite a kerfuffle among Times readers. Swedes, Swedish-Americans and residents of Swedish-American neighborhoods wrote in to say that round-the-clock coffee consumption was utterly normal in Sweden and in Swedish enclaves, nothing “pathological” about it.
... the past few weeks have seen a paroxysm of advice-giving from scientists to the White House ... Why the kerfuffle? Probably because many scientists didn't care too much for the scientific advice that President Reagan had.
Origin of kerfuffle
1945-1950
Kerfuffle entered English in the mid-1900s from Scots curfuffle. Cur- comes from Scots Gaelic car “to twist, turn,” from Old Irish cor “a turn.” Fuffle is a word of imitative origin meaning “to disorder, confuse.”
