Word of the Week Wednesday: Higgledy-Piggledy

Higgledy-Piggledy (adverb)

Pronounced:
hig-ul-dee-PIG-ul-dee

Definition:
in a confused, disordered, or random manner

Example Sentence:
Becky’s blood began to boil as she found her son’s recently laundered clothes strewn higgledy-piggledy across his bedroom floor.

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Sometimes using big words makes you sound smarter. This one? Not so much. Still, the rhyming nature of this word makes it fun to say, and that’s why it’s this Wednesday’s “Word of the Week.”

According to Merrian-Webster, higgledy-piggledy is no flash-in-the-pan word. It actually goes back to at least the 16th century when it appeared as a translation of an Italian word in a 1598 dictionary. Nathaniel Hawthorne discussed the word in his American Notebooks, noting the possible origin as being related to the general disorderliness of swine: "pigs, on a march, do not subject themselves to any leader among themselves, but pass on, higgledy-piggledy, without regard to age or sex."

Wherever it came from, if you really are trying to scold your child for a messy room, you might skip this word.

Once the laughing stops, it probably won’t result in fear OR changed behavior.

Definition and pronunciation taken from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.