GERFASSHED

Stymied seems to be a good fit for this word, coined by a Susan Gunther in a query she submitted to The Word Detective, copyright 1999 Evan Morris. Example: Dear Word Detective: I am totally gerfasshed (just made that up in order to alliterate) by the word gridiron. When, why, how did it come into the language to mean football field? I have queried several football-player types who appear to know all there is to know about the game, and none of them knows why a gridiron is called a gridiron. -- Susan Gunther, via the internet.