Sunday, April 7, 2019

HUGGER-MUGGER

HUGGER-MUGGER

Disorder. Confusion. [And so in Hamlet, though the form appears earlier with many variants, among them XV hoder moder, which is traceable to a dead end (prob. < old dialect) in ME *hoder, huddle heap; *mokere, a store of goods ("makings"? "made things"?), hence, "disorderly heap of stuff," and when applied to a person, "clumsy, disorderly lout."]

from A Browser's Dictionary by John Ciardi

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