Kerfuffle And Other Words That Might or Might Not Show Your Age
By: Carol Lennox
Tags: This Happened To Me, Society, English Language, Culture, Humor

HUMOR

Kerfuffle And Other Words That Might or Might Not Show Your Age

“Beware the jujub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch,” Lewis Caroll

Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash

I got into my first real kerfuffle on Facebook recently. This is highly unusual for me. Rather than risk a kerfuffle or other drama, the majority of my Facebook friends lean as far left as I do, some so far as to nearly fall over into the echo chamber.

On the rare occasion a classmate from my distant past tries to swoop in and post some troll-like remarks, I let my other friends rout them out. I stay neutral.

All of that to say, I don’t do Facebook kerfuffles. I will spare you the details of this one, except at one point there was talk of how using certain words can give away your age. But do they really?

Kerfuffle’s been around since the 1600s, the Middle Ages, and I don’t know anyone 400 years old.

In fact, that word came to my mind during the Facebook face off, because a Millennial client of mine had used it in a session. She’s an avid reader.

So, apart from funny sounding words like kerfuffle, that just feel good rattling around in your mouth, what words would give away our age? Here’s one or two from each generation whose members are still capable of forming sounds.

Boomers claim responsibility for “groovy,” They also really want to claim “cool,” with its cultural meaning of hip. But that goes to the jazz aficionados of the 1930s and 40s. It’s actually a jazz term, for playing with “restrained emotion and the frequent use of counterpoint,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Merriam-Webster also bursts the Boomer bubble for “groovy.” It, too, is a jazz term from the 1920’s. Not just your grandmother’s word, but your great-grandmother’s word. It references the literal groove the record needle traversed to play the record. From there, it came to mean the feel or “groove” of a song.

And what about the word “hip?” I’ll bet you think that’s a word from the Beat Nik generation of the 1950s, and adopted by the teens and twenty-somethings of the 1960s. Nope. It’s first known usage was in 1937, meaning fashionable and, you guessed it, “cool.” So not even the Millennial and Gen Z hipsters of today get to claim it, much less Boomers. Rats!

“Rats,” might be something your grandparents or parents would say, if they grew up watching “Peanuts” cartoons, or reading the books by Charles Schultz, starring Charlie Brown. Everybody’s favorite underdog, would murmer or yell, “Rats,” in the face of defeat.

Did Schultz coin the word? Nope. It, too, came from the Middle Ages, where the word “Drat” was used as an abbreviation and substitute for “God’s rot.” Those middle agers knew how to swear without outwardly offending the church, which held sway at the time.

Gen X used the word “Sweet,” to describe anything they thought was, well…cool. The meaning of the word the way Gen X’s use it is, “Pleasing to the senses, mind, or feelings.” That meaning is from the Old English word “Swete,” used in England from around 450 A.D. to 1100 A.D. Once again, not new.

Millennial words may actually indicate the age of the speaker or writer, as they haven’t necessarily adapted or usurped them from other generations. Acronyms and abbreviations are a favorite, with “Bae” meaning Before Anyone Else, and therefore referencing your main squeeze. And my favorite, the letters “AF” as an abbreviation for “As fuck.”

If you research it though, the idea to use abbreviations sprang from the same Middle Ages that gave us “Drat.” It also gave us “Zounds” and “Gadzooks,” for “God’s wounds,” referencing Jesus on the cross. Sneaky little sinners, they were.

Speaking of sneaky little sinners, Millennials and Gen Zs have a word for their second secret Instagram account that’s hidden from parents and other inquiring minds. It’s called Finsta. Sort of an abbreviation, and sort of something else. Not sure what the F stands for here. I’m guessing it means “Fuck Instagram,” which is counterintuitive, but sneaky as hell. And kinda cool.

In fact, the acronym “AF” originated in the Middle Ages, meaning ad finem, affectus, or ad factum. Affectus, as you might guess, means affection. Ad finem means to the end. Ad factum means, “for the performance of a particular act.” Sounds close to our version of AF to me. Cool AF.

Bottom line, a word borrowed from accountants of all generations, there is nothing new under the sun. However, if you don’t want to give away your age in your writing, steal and use All.The.Millenial/GenZ.Words. And borrow their writing style, as I did there. If you’re young, and want to appear older, use yesterday’s slang, filched from your parents and grandparents. For instance, “Cool,” never seems to go out of style.

And if you want to confuse everybody, use words from the Middle Ages. No one will understand you, but the words sound funny. If enough writers do it, “Drat,” and “Zounds,” and maybe even “Kerfuffle” might become cool again.