defugalty

A great difficulty; a quandry. It is not located in any modern dictionary, and the references to the word are, for the most part, quite obscure. However, this word remains in common use and most individuals who use it say that they have used it since they were young.

The roots of this word are uncertain; some claim that it is a deformation of "difficulty" (which would be quite grievous for a typographical error) while others maintain that it is a derivation of "fugue." (However, "defugue" then becomes a nonsensical abstraction, as TheDiscouragingWord.com has pointed out.)

Since this word is not located in modern dictionaries, it is often mis-spelled. (See Defugilty.) However, the spelling found in all the internet references available (most of which are located on university webservers) is "defugalty."

Sorry for the defugalty; your paperwork went to three different offices and still didn't make it to the director's desk.

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Defugalty

Defugalty - dee fuy gull tee

A serious problem, similar to difficulty, but more intense and often involving two or more parties in disagreement. Synonyms - dispute, discord, squabble, conflict, feud.

My wife's Finnish grandmother used this word, perhaps a mispronunciation of the word "difficulty". Nevertheless, two generations of descendants used the word to describe problems of a serious nature, and not just a minor difficulty. When my wife learned that it is not a real word, she was surprised and said, "Well, it should be".

They were having a defugalty over the fence line.

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