Word of the Day

: April 20, 2010

tousle

verb TOW-zul

What It Means

: dishevel, rumple

tousle in Context

Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to master the cool, disheveled look.

Did You Know?

"Tousle" is a word that has been through what linguists call a "functional shift." That's a fancy way of saying it was originally one part of speech, then gradually came to have an additional function. "Tousle" started out as a verb back in the 15th century. By the late 19th century, "tousle" was also being used as a noun meaning "a tangled mass (as of hair)." Etymologists connect the word to an Old High German word meaning "to pull to pieces."