the.com/bustle

means To hurry about with brisk, busy energy — or, as a noun, the padded frame Victorian women wore to puff out the back of a skirt.

from The verb comes from an old Germanic root meaning to bustle or busk about with noisy energy, related to Middle English 'buskle,' itself tied to 'busk' (to prepare or bustle oneself). The fashion sense — that exaggerated rear puff of fabric — emerged separately in the 18th-19th centuries, borrowing the word simply because the contraption made skirts seem to bustle and sway with motion as the wearer walked. No one invented the connection on purpose; language just noticed the resemblance and kept it.