I saw this sign the other day on one of those nice lanes lined with multi-million-dollar homes on the bluffs overlooking the Hudson River in rural Newburgh, New York.

Unnoticed when I shot the photo, the word “ruffed” caught my eye immediately when I opened the image on the computer. 

“A clever sign marred by a misspelling,” I thought.  “Surely someone should have caught that error.”

I decided to check anyway.  Oops!  The sign’s right.  I’m wrong. And have been wrong for seven plus decades. I don’t think I’ve ever actually written it, but in my speech and thoughts it’s always been “ruffled.”

And I haven’t been the only one.  There is plenty of confusion out there.  A few examples below:

And online definitions don’t help much.  One says simply, “The difference between ruffed and ruffled is that ruffed is having a ruff while ruffled is having ruffles.”  As if that clears it up.

Ruffle as a noun generally implies a bunched-up fabric added to a piece of clothing.  As an adjective it can include messed-with hair or feathers, or even one’s feelings.

Ruff as a noun can mean anything from one of those Elizabethan collars to a ring of feathers or hair around the neck of a bird or mammal.

So if the ruff of a grouse is slightly askew, as may happen in a wind, for example, I suppose it could be called a ruffled ruffed grouse.

I’m done.  The bird, technically Bonasa umbellus, is called a ruffed grouse, but I’ll forever picture it ruffled.