The Evolution of Kerfuffle

Fuffle was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel." The addition of the prefix car- (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, and in the 20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle. There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like kerplunk, where the syllable ker- is simply added for emphasis.

Examples of kerfuffle in a Sentence

predictably, the royal scandal caused quite a kerfuffle on Fleet Street

Recent Examples on the Web There was even a petition to remove Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan over the kerfuffle. — Erik Kain, Forbes, "Sony Isn’t Closing Down The PS3 And PS Vita Stores After All—For Now," 20 Apr. 2021 The kerfuffle over naming the various residential colleges on campus doesn’t upset me. — Brian T. Allen, National Review, "Pruning PC Poison from the Ivies," 11 Apr. 2021 The latest kerfuffle involving a huge left-leaning corporation and two leftist politicians makes one wonder if a conservative small-business owner even stands a chance of fair treatment in Biden’s Washington. — James Freeman, WSJ, "First Rule of Beltway Fight Club: Companies Can’t Defend Themselves," 29 Mar. 2021 This is very funny, in a dour, humorless way; not for nothing was Vinterberg one of the godfathers of Dogme 95, the rigid but hip set of filmmaking rules that caused a mild kerfuffle in the filmmaking world some 25 years ago. — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, "Mads Mikkelsen Can Do Anything. But He's Stuck in the Boring Oscar-Nominated Another Round," 19 Mar. 2021 During a timeout, head coach Juwan Howard was ejected from the game after a kerfuffle with the Maryland coaching staff. — Orion Sang, Detroit Free Press, "Mike Smith powers Michigan basketball in wild game vs. Maryland, 79-66, in Big Ten tourney," 12 Mar. 2021 In 2001, the Hollywood legend was tasked with giving out the award for best drama picture and caused a kerfuffle with her unusual take on the announcement. — Vogue, "The 17 Most Shocking Golden Globes Moments of All Time," 26 Feb. 2021 Oooh, the irony of Melania Trump’s latest Twitter kerfuffle. — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, "Melania Trump Roasted for Tweeting About the ‘Legacy’ of Her Anti-Bullying Platform," 15 Jan. 2021 When conspiracy theorists claimed online that Obama planned to use a military training operation to declare martial law in Texas, Fox covered the kerfuffle mostly to dismiss or even mock it. — New York Times, "Can Conservative Media Still Return to Business as Usual?," 13 Jan. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'kerfuffle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.