shuffle [M16th] Shuffle is either borrowed directly from Low German schuffeln ‘to walk clumsily or with dragging feet, mix, shuffle cards, deal dishonestly, play unfairly’ (all senses found in 16th-century English) or descended from the same Germanic root, either case meaning it is related to shove [OE] and scuffle [L16th]. As a noun for changing ministers in a government it is mid 20th century.