[Loch-Ruadh] word for the day

[Jane Sitton]

Your daily vocabulary lesson: higgledy-piggledy * \hih-gul-dee-PIG-gul-dee\
* (adverb) : in a confused, disordered, or random manner
Example sentence:  Furniture, boxes, and clothes were piled
higgledy-piggledy throughout the house, offering chaotic testimony that the
Harrisons were far from settled in their new home.
Did you know?  We really have no idea where "higgledy-piggledy" came from,
but we do know it's a perfect example of English speakers' fondness for
reduplication; that is, for forming new words by repetition of a base word
with just a slight change of sound.  In this case, the "base" word might
actually be the second term, which is loosely reminiscent of "pig" and calls
to mind the possible association of pigs with disorderliness.  (Nathaniel
Hawthorne, at least, noted a connection: "pigs, on a march, do not subject
themselves to any leader among themselves, but pass on, higgledy-piggledy,
without regard to age or sex.")  We also know that the word has been around
since before 1600; it appeared as a translation of an Italian word in a 1598
Italian-English dictionary.  According to that dictionary, the Italian term
could also be translated as "pell-mell" or "helter-skelter" - two other
examples of reduplication.