kerfuffle noun colloquial fuss, commotion. (According to Oxford)

And according to the tsuwm's WWFTD Dictionary: kerfuffle [Brit] disturbance

I had never heard this word before, and read it in an article today. It tickled my funny bone, and I wanted to share it with you!

It's not an uncommon word over here. See World Wide Words.

Scuffle is a word that sounds as if it's related, but seems not to be. Dictionaries define it as

noun: an unceremonious and disorganized struggle
verb: fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters

However, a scuffle would be used to describe a fight between two drunks, when neither was sober enough to land a decent punch.

However, a scuffle would be used to describe a fight between two drunks, when
neither was sober enough to land a decent punch.
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Perhaps not related either, but one definition of SCRABBLE is to grapple or struggle, so one could have two scufflers scrabbling, or scrabblers scuffling - as often happens when I play the game.

Funny, Morgan. We must have read the same article because I just came across it, as well. I have heard it maybe once or twice--but it is not a common word in the midwest.

Absolutely never heard it before, but it strikes me that the -uffle sound is just intrinsically funny. I'm thinking of the Sesame Street character, Mr. Snuffleupagus.

Checking that "uffle = funny" theory, I looked around and found four words that fit the sound but lack the humor: scruff, scrofula (both neck-related, it seems) and scuff, scuffle.. Says etymology on-line:

scruff - probably related to N.Fris. skuft "back of the neck of a horse" and Du. schoft "withers of a horse."
scrofula - from L.L. scrofulæ (pl.) "swelling of the glands of the neck," from L. scrofa "breeding sow." The connection may be because the glands associated with the disease resemble the body of a sow, or because pigs were thought to be prone to it.
scuff - from Scottish, probably related to O.N skufa, skyfa "to shove." Scuffle is probably a frequentive form of Scand. origin.

I'm dubious about this last entry: what does scuffing your shoes have to do with shoving?

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Absolutely never heard it before, but it strikes me that the -uffle sound is just intrinsically funny.

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That comment reminded me of something a professor once said during a lecture: that the 'sn' consonant cluster often has negative associations especially when it's at the beginning of the word. He quoted examples like: 'snake', 'snide', 'sneer', 'snarl', 'sneaky', 'snooty'.

I looked at all the 'sn' entries in the Collins CoBuild and my professor seems to have been right. The majority of the words have negative connotations.

Then again we also have words like 'snooze', 'snog' and 'snow' that have positive associations, at least for me.

I think it's interesting that a phoneme can carry so much weight.

Can you think of any other such examples?

I think it's interesting that a phoneme can carry so much weight.
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Phoneme? Phone + me - Do you have my number? It's all where one puts the syllabic emphasis.

Perhaps this is related to the considering of Latin words to be "good," and AS words to be "bad." Examples are "defecate" vs. "shit," or "urinate" vs. "piss." The "SN" construction appears to be AS instead of Latin.

BTW, Muse, I'm very glad to see you back here!

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Originally posted by museamuse:
That comment reminded me of something a professor once said during a lecture: that the 'sn' consonant cluster often has negative associations especially when it's at the beginning of the word. He quoted examples like: 'snake', 'snide', 'sneer', 'snarl', 'sneaky', 'snooty'.

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I'd noticed that many sn- words relate to the nose, such as snout, snoot, schnozzola, snore, snort, snot, sneeze, and sniff, but I'd not thought of your more general point.

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:______________________________________________



Perhaps this is related to the considering of Latin words to be "good," and AS words to be "bad." Examples are "defecate" vs. "shit," or "urinate" vs. "piss." The "SN" construction appears to be AS instead of Latin.

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There are also more subtle examples of the divide between English words with AS or Latin roots.

"Beef", "Pork", and "Veal" have Latin roots,
while....
"Cow", "Pig", and "Calf" have AS roots.

The supposed reason for this is that after the Norman Conquest of 1066, the British peasants raised the animals while the Norman aristocrats ate 'em.