kerfuffle

English

WOTD – 11 February 2008

Alternative forms

• cufuffle, cuffuffle, curfuffle, gefuffle, kafuffle, kerfluff, kerfluffle, kurfuffle
• fuffle (by apheresis)

Etymology

Probably from Scots curfuffle, equivalent to ker- +‎ fuffle, or related to Irish cíor thuathail (“confusion, bewilderment”). Similar to modern Welsh cythrwfl (“uproar, trouble, agitation”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈfʌfəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kɚˈfʌfəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌfəl

Noun

kerfuffle (plural kerfuffles)

1. (chiefly Commonwealth, informal) A disorderly outburst, disturbance, commotion, or tumult. [from 19th c.]

   Synonyms: brouhaha, donnybrook, fracas, hubbub, hullabaloo, mess, racket

   • 2009 May 22, Stuart Heritage, “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎^[1]:

     You know all this kerfuffle about Jordan and Peter Andre, and how you don’t know if they’re really splitting up or it’s just an act […]

   • 2011 June 6, Mark Memmott, “Sarah Palin's Had Her Say; Now Let's Hear From Paul Revere”, in The Two-Way‎^[2], National Public Radio:

     There's been a bit of a kerfuffle the past couple days over something Sarah Palin said about Paul Revere.

   • 2023 May 28, Nadia Asparouhova, “Remembering GitHub's Office, a Monument to Tech Culture”, in Wired‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The debate seemed innocuous—a minor kerfuffle, but nothing that couldn’t be resolved and moved on from.

Derived terms

• kerfluff
• kerfuffly

Translations

disorderly outburst

• Bulgarian: суматоха (bg) f (sumatoha)
• Catalan: aldarull (ca) m, commoció f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 混亂 / 混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn), 動亂 / 动乱 (zh) (dòngluàn), 鬧騰 / 闹腾 (zh) (nàoteng), 吵鬧 / 吵闹 (zh) (chǎonào)

• Czech: povyk (cs) m, rámus (cs) m, mela (cs) f, tahanice (cs) f
• Dutch: tumult (nl)
• Faroese: ófriður m, rok n
• Finnish: hälinä (fi), hässäkkä (fi)
• French: désordre (fr) m, tumulte (fr) m, brouhaha (fr) m
• German: Wirbel (de) m, Aufruhr (de) m, Theater (de) n, Durcheinander (de) n
• Portuguese: bafafá (pt) m, distúrbio (pt) m, tumulto (pt) m
• Russian: сумато́ха (ru) f (sumatóxa)
• Spanish: disturbio (es), descalzaperros m
• Swedish: ståhej (sv) n, uppståndelse (sv) c

Verb

kerfuffle (third-person singular simple present kerfuffles, present participle kerfuffling, simple past and past participle kerfuffled)

1. (chiefly Ireland, UK, Commonwealth, informal) To make a disorderly outburst or commotion.