scuffle

Etymology

The OED takes it as a frequentative formation on a base perhaps of Scandinavian origin,^[2] and Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, Collins, Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Dictionary of English also favour Scandinavia,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} comparing Swedish skuffa (“to push”) and skuff (“a push”).^[2][5][3] The OED and Hoad refer this to the Germanic root Proto-Germanic *skuf-, the source of shove,^[2][3] and the OED and the Shorter Oxford also connect shuffle.^[2][4] Etymonline, the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com instead make it a frequentative of scuff,^[8][9][10] which the OED rejects because that verb is recorded later.^[2][8] Skeat compared Middle Dutch schuffelen (“to drive on, to shuffle off”),^[11] and Johnson reports that Skinner derived it from shuffle.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put on, out or up in a scrambling, confused way: 1579, in Tomson's translation of Calvin's sermons.^[2] Etymonline likewise has the transitive verb from the 1570s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to struggle confusedly together, to fight at close quarters" followed in 1590,^[2][6] and the noun, a scrambling fight, is first recorded before 1616 in Antony and Cleopatra;^[2] Johnson (1755) derived the verb from it.^[12] In the 17th century both had a figurative use, for vigorous contention and for heated controversy.^[2] From the 18th century the idea of confused struggle moved towards effort and hurry: to struggle along or go through something superficially (1785), to move in hurried confusion (1838) and, with a shift to the feet, to shuffle (1825).^[2] In Yorkshire and Cheshire dialect it meant to hurry or work hard, and in Lincolnshire to keep one's head above water in bad circumstances,^[13] and American English made this "to scrape a living": the OED dates that slang sense to 1939, but Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1851.^[2][14] The American slang sense of raising money is recorded from 1946.^[2] The noun has also meant the sound of shuffling feet since 1899.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1579 – transitive, to put on or out in a scrambling way.^[2]
• 1590 – to struggle confusedly at close quarters.^[2][6]
• 1601 – figurative, to contend vigorously.^[2]
• before 1616 – noun, a scrambling fight.^[2]
• 1785 – to struggle along, to go hurriedly through something.^[2]
• 1825 – to move with a shuffling gait.^[2]
• 1838 – to go in hurried confusion.^[2]
• 1851 – to survive with difficulty, in American slang.^[14]
• 1899 – noun, the shuffling of feet.^[2]
• 1946 – to obtain or raise money, in American slang.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters.^[9][5][6]
2. To move with a quick shuffling gait or sound.^[9][5][6]
3. To move in a hurried or confused way.^[5][6]
4. To do something hurriedly or haphazardly.^[6][2]
5. (US slang) To get by with difficulty, as by working at odd jobs.^[6][14][2]
6. (US slang) To obtain or scrape together money.^[2][4]

Noun

1. A short, disorderly struggle at close quarters; a tussle.^[9][5][6]
2. A soft, confused shuffling sound.^[5][6][4]

Word family

• scuffler
• scufflingly

Related words

• scuff
• shove
• shuffle
• shovel

Usage notes

In farming and gardening, a scuffle or scuffle hoe is a thrust hoe, and to scuffle is to hoe with one.^[6][4][13] This use has a separate source, Dutch schoffel (“weeding hoe”), related to shovel,^[2][4][6] and is first recorded in 1766 for the verb and 1797 for the noun.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang also records scuffle as a drug name for phencyclidine, of unknown origin.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com