tousle

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2025 is: tousle \TOW-zul\ verb To tousle something is to dishevel it—that is, to make it untidy or unkempt. Tousle is usually, though not always, used specifically when a person’s hair is being so treated. // Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to get a cool, disheveled look. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tousle) Examples: “One of her hands tousled her long hair, which she wore down, and the other hand hovered in front of her skirt as she hooked a thumb in its waistband. She paired the fashion set with a choker necklace and dangling hoop earrings.” — Meghan Roos, Parade, 21 Mar. 2024 Did you know? The verb tousle today is typically used for the action of [mussing](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muss) someone’s hair playfully (“tousling the toddler’s hair”) or fussily (“tousling her tresses for that just-woke-up look”), but the word’s history is a bit edgier. Tousle and its synonym [touse](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/touse) come from -tousen (“to pull or handle roughly”), a [frequentative](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frequentative) of the Middle English verb touselen. (A frequentative indicates repeated or recurrent action; sniffle, for example, is a frequentative of sniff.) Both tousle and touse have older meanings having to do with rough handling in general; before hair was tousled, people were—ouch. It’s no coincidence that another frequentative of -tousen, the Scots word tussillen, is the ancestor of the English verb [tussle](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tussle), meaning “to scuffle” or “to fight or struggle with someone by grabbing or pushing.”