141: kerfuffle Apr 28, 2015

Certain words are more difficult to confirm the derivation for than others, namely words from languages lacking many written records, if any, before the last few centuries. The word 'kerfuffle' either derives from the Scots word, 'curfuffle' which may, although not certainly, come from Scottish Gaelic, 'car', meaning ‘twist, bend’ combined with the onomatopoetic Scots word 'fuffle' which means 'to disorder'. 'Kerfuffle' could also be related to Irish "cior thual" which means 'confusion, disorder'.