higgledy-piggledy
/ˈhɪɡəldiˌpɪɡəldi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.40 in modern English
33
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A disordered jumble; a confusion.
Example Sentences
- "I can't find your memo since my desk is all higgledy-piggledy."
- "A farmer in Hampshire was sorely distressed by the unsettling of his barn. However straightly over-night he laid his sheaves on the threshing-floor for the application of the morning's flail, when morning came, all was topsy-turvy, higgledy-piggledy, though the door remained locked, and there was no sign whatever of irregular entry."
- "The houses of the central village were quite unlike the casual and higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain villages he knew."
- "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."
- "The world is a higgledy-piggledy place, with things pleasant and unpleasant occurring in no particular sequence."
- "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.”"
Etymology
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. First use appears c. 1598. The first part of the old alternative form, hoggledy-piggledy, may derive from the archaic Welsh hogldy, a hovel.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hogldy
Usage
Inflected Forms
more higgledy-piggledy (comparative)
most higgledy-piggledy (superlative)
higgledypiggledy (alternative)
hoggledy-piggledy (alternative)
hoggledy-poggledy (alternative)
huggledy-piggledy (alternative)
higgledy-piggledies (plural)