hodgepodge

• hodge-podge, hotchpotch

From Middle English hochepoche, a variation of hochepot, from Old French hochepot, from Middle Dutch hutspot (“beef or mutton cut into small pieces and mixed and boiled together in a pot”), from hotsen, hutsen (“to shake; jog; jolt”) + pot (“pot”), equivalent to hotch +‎ pot. Compare German Low German Hüttspott (“hodgepodge”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒd͡ʒˌpɒd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑd͡ʒˌpɑd͡ʒ/

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hodgepodge (countable and uncountable, plural hodgepodges)

1. A collection containing a variety of miscellaneous things.

   Synonyms: farrago, melange, mishmash; see also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

   His latest sculpture is a hodgepodge of kitchen clutter and scrap glued together.

   • 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter XI, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 217:

     MAn's life is but vain, for tis ſubject to pain, / and ſorrow, and ſhort as a buble; / 'tis a hodge podge of buſineſs, and mony and care, / and care, and mony, and trouble.

   • 1989 January, Werner Winter, “On a new claim concerning substratum influence upon Tocharian”, in Central Asiatic Journal‎^[1], volume 33, number 1/2, Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISSN, page 130:

     The entire section is a hodgepodge of ill-absorbed and ill-digested bits of information lifted in a haphazard fashion from the sources used with apparently no other goal in mind than to accumulate a list of items with some degree of resemblance to forms from Manding and Dravidian […]

2. A confused mass of ingredients shaken or mixed together in the same pot.
   • 1699, William Dampier, chapter I, in Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, part II (Mr. Dampier’s Voyages to the Bay of Campeachy), page 38:

     The little Pieces of Beef vvere like Plums in our Hodg-podg. Indeed 'tvvas not fit to be eaten any other vvay; for tho' it did not ſtink, yet it vvas very unſavory and black, vvithout the leaſt ſign of Fat in it: […]

• hodgepodgery

hodgepodge (third-person singular simple present hodgepodges, present participle hodgepodging, simple past and past participle hodgepodged)

1. (ambitransitive) To move or position in an erratic, disorganized manner.