[Ads-l] Curfuffle

[victor steinbok]

I also have a followup on "kerfuffle". There multiple forms listed for
kerfuffle, including kafuffle, kufuffle, kurfuffle, gefuffle. In fact, the
earliest example is of "kafuffle" (1946).

I have a citation for kafuffle in 1926 and in 1907, 1908 and 1917, all
three from the same author (below). I clipped the entire 1926 sentence
first, for context.

"All the feelings about relics may be mere sentimental snobbery, but it
does give you strange feelings to have between your own fingers that
gold-bound little drum of crystal, sealed at both ends, and to see inside
the little papery kafuffle of whiteness and ash, that actually, in its
time, was part of the mortal Epiphany of Gautama Buddha; the one
first-class relic in the world, of whose authenticity there cannot be a
shadow of doubt, seeing that the ashes were most carefully collected and
apportioned and the strictest record kept of their subsequent subdivisions."

K.H.M. Cox. Farrar's Last Journey. Upper Burma, 1919-1920. London:
Dulau&Co, 1926. P. 157

https://books.google.com/books?id=FXlCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA157&dq=%22kafuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT6JLIgbCHAxVJMlkFHd4YCYgQuwV6BAgIEAc#v=onepage&q=%22kafuffle%22&f=false

"See, here is your Auntie Josephine come to know what all this kafuffle is
about."

Alice Perrin. A Free Solitude. London: Chatto & Windus, 1907. P. 49

https://books.google.com/books?id=b43wH1swlQwC&pg=PA49&dq=%22kafuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT6JLIgbCHAxVJMlkFHd4YCYgQuwV6BAgFEAc#v=onepage&q=%22kafuffle%22&f=false

"How lucky that you only found me and Mrs. Christian! Suppose we had been
two gay young bachelors from the regiment"-he winked at Selma-"and you had
come home too soon! My! what a kafuffle there would have been !"

Alice Perrin. The Stronger Claim. London: Chatto & Windus, 1908. P. 239

https://books.google.com/books?id=nv4nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA239&dq=%22kafuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT6JLIgbCHAxVJMlkFHd4YCYgQuwV6BAgGEAc#v=onepage&q=%22kafuffle%22&f=false

"Here is a nice affair!" she began in high indignation. "Such a kafuffle,"
wailed her mother.

Alice Robinson Perrin. Separation. London: Cassell & Company, 1917. P. 211
(1919 Popular Edition)

https://books.google.com/books?id=RXhBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA211&dq=%22kafuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT6JLIgbCHAxVJMlkFHd4YCYgQuwV6BAgHEAc#v=onepage&q=%22kafuffle%22&f=false

____

There is, however, a matter of "kerfuffle" appearing much earlier but not
with the specified meaning. Rather, it's used as a name of a character in a
play.

Here's a snippet from the cast of characters:

JACK, the little hero of the big Beanstalk, which has been the Town's Talk
(Her first appearance)...
DAME DOROTHY KERFUFFLE, Jack's only parent on the mother's side, who,
though a highbernian, declines to accompany him to Higher-land...

John F. McArdle. Grand Comic Christmas Pantomime. Jack And the Beanstalk.
Liverpool: Alexandra Theatre [Program]. 1874-5

https://books.google.com/books?id=sP_o_9dyjLEC&pg=PA5&dq=%22kerfuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGsaXMjLCHAxWTEVkFHaU5CoUQuwV6BAgHEAc#v=onepage&q=%22kerfuffle%22&f=false

Looking at the names of other characters (e.g., Baron and Baroness
Blunderbustle), it's clear that the name is evocative, although there's no
indication of then-common meaning. Yet, with "curfuffle" already attested
in multiple variants over 60 years prior, the two appear to be connected.

That would be an antedating of over 70 years!

There's also the issue of "fuffle", without any prefix (OED lists curfuffle
as derived from fuffle by means of adding the productive Gaelic car-). Both
are attested as verbs (both Scottish and rare) much earlier - both in 16th
century. But there is a much more recent citation for the noun "fuffle",
again in a dialect listing. And not in Scotland!

Alfred Easter. A Glossary Of The Dialect of Almondbury and Huddersfield.
English Dialect Society. 1883.

Fuffle, Fooffle, or Fufflement, sb.
a word applied to an abundance of clothing. A woman with too many flounces
or ribbons, &c., would be said to have too much fuffle about her; so would
a plant of wheat if it had too many blades.

https://books.google.com/books?id=7HYMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA50&dq=%22fuffle%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJ1tiqkbCHAxVcEFkFHXYaDMcQuwV6BAgREAc#v=onepage&q=%22fuffle%22&f=false

The meaning, in my view, is clearly related (a mess). But it's untethered
from both previous and subsequent incarnation. Is there more to this?

VS-)

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