higgledy-piggledy

• higgledypiggledy

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɪɡəldiˌpɪɡəldi/

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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.

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.

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

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.

• (in a disordered way): willy-nilly

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

• See Thesaurus:hodgepodge

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

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

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.