higgledy-piggledy

See also: higgledypiggledy

English

WOTD – 9 November 2006

Alternative forms

• higgledypiggledy
• hoggledy-piggledy
• hoggledy-poggledy
• huggledy-piggledy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɪɡəldiˌpɪɡəldi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

A reduplicated rhyming compound. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible link to pig, since the animals huddle in irregular groups, but notes that the connection is uncertain. Attested since the late sixteenth century. The first part of the old alternative form, hoggledy-piggledy, may come from archaic Welsh hogldy, a hovel.

Adjective

higgledy-piggledy (comparative more higgledy-piggledy, superlative most higgledy-piggledy)

1. In utter disorder or confusion; mixed up.

   I can't find your memo since my desk is all higgledy-piggledy.

   • 1911, H. G. Wells, The Country of the Blind:

     The houses of the central village were quite unlike the casual and higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain villages he knew.

   • 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, 12 October:

     For many years we have all known that the executive and administrative departments of the Government in Washington are a higgledy-piggledy patchwork of duplicate responsibilities and overlapping powers.

   • 1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness:

     The world is a higgledy-piggledy place, with things pleasant and unpleasant occurring in no particular sequence.

   • 2022, Ronald Mann, “Justices debate state’s right to take tort recoveries from Medicaid beneficiaries”, in SCOTUSblog, 01-11:

     Breyer was not so direct, but was plainly uncomfortable with the state’s “higgledy-piggledy” reading, which he compared unfavorably to Gallardo’s request that the court interpret the provisions “consistently with the whole spirit of the thing, which is to leave the money with the Medicaid victim.”

Synonyms

• (in disorder): disordered, disorderly, hugger-mugger, jumbled, topsy-turvy, raggle-taggle

Derived terms

• higgledy

Translations

in disorder

• Finnish: hujan hajan (fi), sikin sokin (fi)
• French: pêle-mêle (fr), en désordre (fr)
• Hungarian: rendetlen (hu), rendezetlen (hu)
• Maori: tōroherohe
• Polish: bezładny (pl)

Adverb

higgledy-piggledy (comparative more higgledy-piggledy, superlative most higgledy-piggledy)

1. In a confused, disordered, or random way.
   • 1881, James Greenwood, chapter 11, in Low-Life Deeps:

     There is no kind of arrangement as regards the buildings they are erected "higgledy-piggledy;" backs to fronts, anyhow, with narrow passages between.

Synonyms

• (in a disordered way): willy-nilly

Translations

in a disordered way

• French: pêle-mêle (fr), en désordre (fr)
• Italian: alla rinfusa (it), a catafascio
• Korean: 뒤죽박죽 (ko) (dwijukbakjuk)
• Swedish: huller om buller (sv)
• Ukrainian: хаотично (xaotyčno)

Noun

higgledy-piggledy (plural higgledy-piggledies)

1. A disordered jumble; a confusion.
   • 1779, Thomas Medley, The Shandymonian, subtitle:

     A Higgledy-Piggledy of Controversies and Opinions on various intereſting Subjects

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:hodgepodge

References

• "higgledy-piggledy" Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933..

Etymology 2

Self-reference to the form of the word higgledy-piggledy.

Noun

higgledy-piggledy (plural higgledy-piggledies)

1. A double-dactyl; a short poem with eight lines in dactylic meter.
   • 1980, Gyles Brandreth, The Joy of Lex, page 123:

     Higgledy-piggledies are more sophisticated than clerihews: they comprise double dactyls and rhymes and aren't always biographical.

2. Any of various word games using rhyming compounds or dactylic words or phrases.
   • 1994, Herbert Kohl, Masters' Word Game Collection, page 249:

     The games are a bit archaically presented, but they include palindromes, acrostics, higgledy-piggledies, anagrams, etc.