K is for kittens, ketchup, kertuffles

Also, Ketchum, kindergarten, Kaliope and kindness.

My favorite (new) "K" word is kertuffle.  

You may look at it and say, "Hey, what, the word is spelled "kerfuffle."  And, as I learned today, you would be correct!

I love words. I particularly love reading them without knowing how they sound. There is nothing quite like hearing the accurate pronunciation of a word for the first time ... and it is not as you have been saying it to yourself for the past however long!

My first example of this epic letdown was the word "melancholy."  My internal pronunciation  was mel-AN'-ko-lee'.  How dismal to learn that it was said, MEL'an ko lee.

Today I used the word "kertuffle" and was told in no uncertain terms that the word was "kerfuffle."  How wrong my corrector was, I replied.

"Oh no," said she," look it up!"

I did. She was right.  

Sigh.

Thus another word is struck from my imaginary dictionary.  

But in my googling, I did learn that the word "kertuffle" has been by others. For example,  C/Net has a headline on July 20, 2005 - "The last word on the Rove kerfuffle."  You can google "kerfuffle" for more.

See,  I am not the only one with a private lexicon.  Thus spake Robin!

But now that I know the truth, I am forced to use the real word...and it is...KERFUFFLE!

(Check out Megan Hicks's musing on kerfuffles at meganhicks.wordpress.com.)

The definition and backstory of the word, according to Merriam-Webster, is as below:

chiefly British

:  disturbance, fuss

Examples of KERFUFFLE

<predictably, the royal scandal caused quite a kerfuffle on Fleet Street>

Origin of KERFUFFLE

alteration of carfuffle, from Scots car- (probably from Scottish Gaelic cearrwrong, awkward) + fuffle to become disheveled

First Known Use: 1946