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): /ˈhɒdʒˌpɒdʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑdʒˌpɑdʒ/

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hodgepodge (countable and uncountable, plural hodgepodges)

1. Alternative form of hotchpotch (“miscellaneous collection”)

   His latest sculpture is a hodgepodge of kitchen clutter and scrap glued together. In fact, all his recent pieces have been similar hodgepodges.

   • 1653, Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler

     Man's life is but vain, for 'tis subject to pain, / And sorrow, and short as a bubble; / 'Tis a hodge-podge of business, and money, and care, / And care, and money, and trouble.

2. Alternative form of hotchpotch (“mixture of ingredients, or form of mutton broth”)

• farrago, hotchpotch, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag
• See also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To move or position in an erratic, disorganised manner.