Just read in WCS Another American in France, the expression
no fuss, no muss
I knew the expression no fuss, but don’t think I had ever heard the word muss.
Speaking about a kitchen utensil, it means of course that it was easy to use, and what’s more, was tidy and easy to clean. I assumed all that from reading Walt’s post.
Still, as I like dictionaries I looked up muss in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and was surprised to find
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 obsolete a : a game in which players scramble for small objects thrown to the ground b : SCRAMBLE
2 slang : a confused conflict : ROW
3 : a state of disorder : MESS
Of course, number three is the right choice, and Walt must have chosen it because of the rhyming quality.
My bilingual Robert and Collins dictionary gave the example of mussing up someone’s hair.
This made my morning!
I had forgotten that I had a Words category and don’t think I had put a post there for quite a long time!
It might not be related but there is a tradition of tussie-mussies — little bouquet/nosegays that are made and symbolize various meanings when given and received. For example, yellow roses symbolize friendship. They are made with herbs and flowers.
When my daughter marries, she will stop and pull out a little tussie mussie from her bridal bouquet for the mothers of the bride and groom from her bouquet. It might have rosemary for rememberance and ivy for faithfulness. Geraldine Laufer wrote the book on the subject of tussie mussies and flower symbolism. I loved getting her to come do a workshop on them at the big Atlanta Garden Show…
Ah. You’ve inspired a post by your thought of mussiness with more meanings.
Nice expression, it has a nice ring to it
I’ve always liked that expression. It’s funny, you always know exactly what it means even though most of us have no idea what “muss” means and use it nowhere else but in that expression. And of, course, I wouln’t be able to use it in a sentence unless it came up in conversation. I guess that makes it an “idiomatic expression”.
My mom used to say that often.
It must be a southern thing. Heard it and used it all my life and I’m from Louisiana. By the way…I like your blog.
Interesting–would not have looked that up myself.
I haven’t thought of that word “muss” in ages, but I recall it being used a lot years ago. Guess too many other words came along to take it’s place.
Claude, it’s funny how certain expressions we use and take for granted can cause so much confusion to a non-native speaker. I know it happens to me a lot in French. And I had never even thought about what “muss” actually means; I suppose it’s just a corruption of “mess.” Thanks !
Maybe it is a “southern thing” like Robbie said.
That expression was also common in my part of the south.
Nice of you to pull out the dictionary for this expression; I like all of the musings that it has inspired, especially Mother Pie’s on tussie mussies.
Gee, that is a familiar expression I haven’t heard for awhile. To think I had to come to Paris to be reminded of it.
Now every time I use an expression of this sort, I’ll be thinking, “I wonder if Claude knows this one?” as I did when I wrote some one a few minutes ago “…get your goat.”
“No fuss, no muss” was part of a huge late night advertising campaign for “Veg-o-matic” in the 70′s. “It slices, it dices… !”
The word is very familiar to me…I’m from Texas. I still say “don’t muss my hair” (but, it’s “dont MESS with Texas.”)