1945, American English, perhaps from U.S. Southern dialectal hassle "to pant, breathe noisily" (1928), of unknown origin; or perhaps from hatchel "to harass" (1800), which may be a variant of hazel, the name of the plant that furnished switches for whippings. Noted in 1946 as a show biz vogue word.
v.
1951, from hassle (n.). Related: Hassled; hassling.
A disagreement; quarrel; fight: A hassel between two actors touched off the riot/ The hassle over putting fluoride in drinking water
A difficult or tedious task or concern: Getting those tickets was a real hassle
verb
: They were hassling about who would pay the bill
(also hass) To harass; treat rudely and roughly: I went to an assistant DA and told him I wanted to discuss being hassled by the police/ What you going to do if you find the hobo that hassed him?
To get narcotics with difficulty: He finally hassled one bag(1950s+ Narcotics)
[1920s+, but mainly 1940s+; origin unknown; probably fr hatchel, ''to harass,'' found by 1800, a hatchel being an instrument for beating flax, and related to heckle;perhaps fr hazel, with a variant hassle, the switch used for beatings; hazel oil meant ''a beating'' by 1678]
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D. Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers. Cite This Source
