fussy (fusi)

[Now regarded as fu , n., + -yl; but perhaps orig. an extended form of ME. fus, fous, eager, anxious: see fu , n., and fouse.] Moving and acting with fu ; bustling; making much ado about trifles; making more ado than is nece ary. The "over-formal" often impede, and sometimes frustrate, busine , by a dilatory, tedious, circuitous, and (what in colloquial language is called) fu y way of conducting the simplest transactions. Whately, Note on Bacon's E ay of Seeming Wise. Very fu y about his food was Sergeant B., and much trotting of attendants was nece ary when he partook of nourishment. L. M. Alcott , Hospital Sketches, p. 88. fust1 (fust), n. [OF. fust, fuist, feust, fus , a stick, stock, stake, log, shaft, branch or stem of a tree, a tree, wood, etc., F. fût , stock, 2420 shaft, Sp. Pg. fuste = It. fusto, m., stock, stem, etc. (cf. OF. fuste, f., a stock, piece of wood, cask, pipe, hogshead, also a foist (a sailing ve el so called), = Sp. Pg. It. fust a: see foist4 ), ter. Gwilt.