Revised as of
13 July 2023
Someone tousling another’s hair would simply leave it disheveled. Think of it as more of a soft noogie.
Meanwhile, a tussle with someone’s hair? Sounds like a battle a hairdresser would do with unruly hair. And it sounds so violent. It would mess up their hair even more.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Tousle | Tussle |
|---|---|
Head of a Man with Tousled Hair, 1794, uploaded by Fæ is under the CC BY 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
James McCarthy Tussle by Alasdair Middleton from Rothesay, Scotland, was uploaded by kafuffle and is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Tussle has a tussle with an opposing team member. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun; Verb, transitive
Plural for the noun: tousles Third person present verb: tousles Alternative spelling: touzle |
Noun; Verb, intransitive
Plural for the noun: tussles Third person present verb: tussles |
| Noun: An act of making something untidy, especially hair
[Scotland; a.k.a. tussle ] Rough dalliance Verb, transitive: To disorder or dishevel To handle roughly |
Noun: A vigorous, sometimes rough, struggle or scuffle, typically in order to obtain or achieve something Any vigorous or determined struggle, conflict, etc. Verb, intransitive:
Verb, transitive: To handle roughly |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: Annie reached up behind his head and gave his hair a tousle. He’d gently brush back my tousle. “Charles stands as the bridge to generations and generations of inevitability — all the way down to 9-year-old Prince George, the someday-king with a tousle of blond hair and fidgety energy” (Givhan). Have a tousle in the hay, didja? Verb, transitive: Nathan’s tousled head appeared in the hatchway. The wind tousled our hair. |
Noun: There was a tussle for the ball. I had quite a tussle with that chemistry exam. There was a legal tussle over who gets custody of the children. The referee booked him for a tussle with the goalie. Verb, intransitive: They ended up tussling with the security staff. Officials tussled over who had responsibility for it. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: tousled | |
| History of the Word: | |
| Late Middle English in the sense of handle roughly or rudely. Expressing frequent repetition or intensity of action, a.k.a., frequentative, of dialect touse meaning handle roughly of Germanic origin and related to the German zausen. | Both noun and verb are late Middle English. The verb was originally Scots and northern English, perhaps a diminutive of dialect touse meaning handle roughly. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Tousle versus Tussle
Apple Dictionary.com
The Free Dictionary: tousle, tussle
Givhan, Robin. “King Charles III: The epitome of inherited everything.” The Washington Post. 20 Sep 2022. Web. 6 Jan 2022. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/king-charles-iii-epitome-inherited-everything/>.
Merriam-Webster: tousle
Pinterest Photo Credits
Hair Tousled by the Wind is in the public domain, via Pxfuel.
