Anyone can state an etymology with more certainty than warranted; that doesn't mean the etymology is actually known. The page you quoted says: > The word Puzzl

Anyone can state an etymology with more certainty than warranted; that doesn't mean the etymology is actually known. The page you quoted says: > The word Puzzle comes from pusle “bewilder, confound” which is a frequentive of the obsolete verb pose (from Medieval French aposer) in sense of “perplex”. But etymonline (Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary) says (https://www.etymonline.com/word/puzzle https://www.etymonline.com/word/puzzle): > 1590s, pusle "bewilder, confound, perplex with difficult problems or questions," possibly frequentative of pose (v.) in obsolete sense of "perplex" (compare nuzzle from nose). Note the word "possibly". Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puzzle&oldid=1029570961#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puzzle&oldid=1029...) says: > The etymology of the verb puzzle is described by [the Oxford English Dictionary] as "unknown"; unproven hypotheses regarding its origin include an Old English verb puslian meaning 'pick out', and a derivation of the verb pose. And this is the full note in the version of OED I have access to: > [Note. For the etymology of puzzle the first question is the relation of the n. and vb. The vb. has been held to be derived from the n., and the latter viewed as an aphetic form of apposal or opposal. But the chronology of the words, and still more the consideration of their sense-history, seem to make it clear that the verb came first, and that the n. was its derivative. In the light of this, the vb. has been referred to pose v. 2, as a diminutive (or other derivative formation), as in suck, suckle. This is phonetically possible: cf. nuzzle from nose. But there are serious difficulties in the signification. Of the earlier sense of puzzle, as seen in the examples under 1a above, no trace appears in the original sense of pose and appose `to examine by putting questions', and it is only the derivative senses 2 of pose and 1c of puzzle that come into contact. Thus their relation seems to be that of two words originally distinct, which (as in some other cases) have subsequently attracted each other. Puzzle was possibly the same verb of which the pa. pple. poselet occurs late in the 14th c., app. in the sense `bewildered, confused, confounded', and which, riming with hoselet, i.e. hūselet, housled, was prob. pronounced (ˈpuːzəlɛt), which would regularly give by 1600 (ˈpʊzlɛd), later (ˈpʌzlɛd). The non-appearance of the verb during the intervening 200 years might be owing to its being one of the colloquial words which came into literary use in the 16th c. This is however conjectural and, even if true, leaves the ulterior derivation still to seek. (A verb of similar form appears in late OE. puslian `to pick out best pieces of food' (Sweet), = Du. peuzelen to pick, to piddle, LG. pöseln, pusseln, Norw. pusla; but it is difficult to see in its sense any connexion with that of `puzzle'.)]