Word of the Day: Kerfuffle

kerfuffle: (n.) a commotion or fuss; disruption, disturbance, flutter, hoo-ha, hurly-burly, brouhaha, hubbub, katzenjammer, uproar, wrangle, row, tumult, affray, altercation, rumpus, ruckus, ruction

...we know kerfuffle was originally Scots and it’s thought that its first part came from Scots Gaelic car, to twist or bend. The second bit is more of a puzzle: there is a Scots verb fuffle (now known only in local dialect), to throw into disorder, dishevel, or ruffle. No obvious origin for it is known and experts suspect it was an imitative word. It is probably linked with Scots fuff, to emit puffs of smoke or steam, definitely imitative, which in the late eighteenth century also had a sense of going off in a huff or flying into a temper.