furfur

From Latin furfur (“bran”), reduplication of *fur, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰur-, metathesis of *gʰrus- (compare Lithuanian grū́sti (“to grind (barley)”), Ancient Greek χρώς (khrṓs, “skin, husk”)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːfə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɝfɚ/

furfur (usually uncountable, plural furfures)

1. (archaic, countable) a particle of dandruff
2. (archaic, uncountable) dandruff
   • 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like the Sun:

     ‘Aye,’ said WS, still in bed, scratching his baldness, examining the furfur in his fingernails.

• furrfu

Unknown. Traditionally explained as from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to rub, grind”), however as De Vaan notes the vowel /u/ would be unexplained; a preform *gʰur- ~ *ǵʰur- would be expected instead, but no such root exists.[1] Compare Ancient Greek κέγχρος (kénkhros) and κάχρυς (kákhrus), which also relate to grains.

Alternatively, cognate with Sanskrit बुस (busa, “chaff, refuse grain; rubbish”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰus-.[2] In either of these cases, from a reduplicated root.

Given the word's unusual form in the absence of a solid Indo-European explanation, borrowing from some unknown, perhaps substrate, source is likely.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfur.fur/, [ˈfʊrfʊr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfur.fur/, [ˈfurfur]

furfur m (genitive furfuris); third declension

1. bran, husks of grain, chaff
2. scaly infection of the skin

Third-declension noun.

• furfurāceus
• furfurāculum
• furfurārius
• furfureus
• furfuriō
• furfurōsus

• Italian: forfora, forforo (Lucchese)
• Old French: fourfre
• Piedmontese: forfa, fòrfora
• Sardinian: frùffere, fùffere, fùrfaru
• → Catalan: fúrfur
• → English: furfur ⇒ furfuraceous
• → French: furfures

• Rubattu, Antoninu (2006) “crusca”, in Dizionario universale della lingua di Sardegna, 2nd edition, Sassari: Edes
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fŭrfŭr”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 3: D–F, page 895

• “furfur”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• furfur in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.