Etymology

scuffle

scuf·fle
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Today it means: A rough, disorderly fight or struggle at close quarters. Full definition →

Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-
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scuffle · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*skewbʰ-
  2. English todayscuffle

Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

scuffle · noun, verb2

  1. Dutch · borrowed fromschoffel
  2. English todayscuffle

The noun is a borrowing from Dutch schoffel; the English verb arose via subsequent verbification within English but is also parallel with Dutch schoffelen.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*skewbʰ- all →

skipcuffshovesewel

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.