fuzz
n. uncountablen. a soft, thin layer of hair or fiber that feels like wool. It can also mean the blurry or unclear part of a sound or image.
n. a mass of fine, light fibers or hairs that create a soft texture. Often refers to the blurred or distorted quality of an audio signal or visual image.
The peach has a thin layer of fuzz on its skin.
The old radio produced a lot of fuzz, making it difficult to hear the news clearly.
The guitarist intentionally added fuzz to the signal to create a gritty, distorted sound that defined the garage rock genre of the era.
Uncertain. Some dictionaries suggest a Germanic source; compare Low German fussig (“loose; spongy”), Dutch voos (“unsound; rotten”). Others, such as Webster's New College Dictionary, suggest a back-formation from fuzzy. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “Perhaps imitative of the action of blowing away light particles.”
Unknown. Godfrey Irwin (1930) suggests a possible connection to fuss, "over-particular", excessive bother.
Often used to describe textures or low-quality electronic signals.