higgledy-piggledyとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

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

発音

• IPA: /ˈhɪɡəldiˌpɪɡəldi/

語源 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. First use appears c. 1598. The first part of the old alternative form, hoggledy-piggledy, may derive from the archaic Welsh hogldy, a hovel.

形容詞

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

1. (slang) 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.”

同意語

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

派生語

• higgledy

参考

• Thesaurus:hodgepodge

副詞

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

1. (slang) 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.

同意語

• (in a disordered way): willy-nilly

名詞

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

同意語

• See Thesaurus:hodgepodge

参照

• "higgledy-piggledy" James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Higgledy-piggledy”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC..

語源 2

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

名詞

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.

Further reading

• Higgledy piggledy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia