A hairy topic

For reasons that remain unclear to me, for the last couple of days I have been wondering about the word disheveled. It sounds like the past tense of a verb -- dishevel. And dishevel sounds a bit like not-shevel (like dislike -- get it, like dis-like?) and so on.

So is a person sheveled if he or she is neat? Or maybe just heveled, in which case the s is part of the prefix dis.

Turns out disheveled appeared in English around 1375-1425. It derives from late Middle English discheveled, itself from Old French deschevele, past participle of descheveler to dishevel the hair, equivalent to des- (dis-) + -cheveler, derivative of chevel, a hair, from the Latin capillus.

It seems that the French word originally meant ‘having the hair uncovered’ and therefore loose or unbound. Later it referred to such hair being messy or untidy. 

Actually, now that I look at that guy's picture, I realize why I have been pondering dishevelment. I badly need a haircut! [And yes, the word is dishevelment, spelled just that way.]

Today we use the word to describe more than hair, often saying that a person's clothes are disheveled.  

Dishevelment can refer to the confused state of one's mind, work area or so on. Use it in a sentence today and see if you get a reaction. I certainly plan to do so!