It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 23rd.

Today's word is tousel, also pronounced tousel, and spelled T-O-U-S-L-E.

Towsal is a verb. To tousel something is to dishevel it, that is to make it untidy or unkempt.

Towsal is usually, though not always, used specifically when a person's hair is being so treated.

Here's the word used in a sentence from Parade by Megan Ruse.

One of her hands touseled 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. The verb tousel today is typically used for the action

of mushing someone's hair, playfully,

touseling the toddler's hair, or fussily, touseling her tresses for that just-woke-up look.

But the word's history is a bit edgier.

Towsel and its synonym Tows, T-O-U-S-E, come from Towson, meaning to pull or handle roughly,

a frequentative of the Middle English verb, Taoselen.

A frequentative indicates repeated or recurrent action.

Sniffle, for example, is a frequentative of sniff.

Both Tausel and Taos have older meanings having to do with

rough handling in general. Before hair was tousled, people were. It's no coincidence that another

frequentative of Towson, the Scots word Tusselin, is the ancestor of the English verb Tussle, meaning to scuffle or to fight or struggle

with someone by grabbing or pushing. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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