[Loch-Ruadh] Word for the day

[Jane Sitton]

The Word of the Day for October 23 is:

tousle * \TOW-zul ("OW" as in "cow")\ * (verb):  dishevel, rumple

Example sentence:

Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to master the
cool, disheveled look.

Did you know?

"Tousle" is a word that has been through what linguists call a "functional
shift."  That's a fancy way of saying it was originally one part of speech,
then gradually came to have a different function.  "Tousle" started out as a
verb back in the 15th century.  By the late 19th century, "tousle" was also
being used as a noun meaning "a tangled mass (as of hair)."
Etymologists connect the word to an Old High German word meaning "to pull to
pieces."