31 July 2016

hugger-mugger

[huhg-er-muhg-er]

noun

1. disorder or confusion; muddle.
2. secrecy; reticence:
Why is there such hugger-mugger about the scheme?
adjective
3. secret or clandestine.
4. disorderly or confused.
verb (used with object)
5. to keep secret or concealed; hush up.
verb (used without object)
6. to act secretly.

Origin of hugger-mugger

Middle English

1520-1530; earlier hucker-mucker, rhyming compound based on mucker, Middle English mokeren to hoard

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for hugger-mugger

Historical Examples

Still, everything drifts on to these hugger-mugger large enterprises; Chicago spreads over the world.
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Muddle flies before it, and hugger-mugger becomes a thing unknown.
Character
Samuel Smiles

All that set you were brought up in—why, one only had to look at them to see what a hugger-mugger way they probably lived.
Vera
Elisabeth von Arnim

Anagram

Mr Huge Egg Rug

Today’s aphorism

All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

– Daniel Defoe

On this day

31 July 1703 – Daniel Defoe, author of ‘Robinson Crusoe‘, is put in the pillory for committing ‘seditious libel’ after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet entitled ‘The shortest-way with dissenters; Or, proposals for the establishment of the church‘, which was critical of the establishment of the church and the practice of ‘occasional conformity’, in which dissenters could attend church once a year and still qualify as members of the Church of England. Whilst in the pillory, Defoe was pelted with flowers rather than the usual fruit and vegetables.

31 July 1965 – birthday of Joanne (J.K.) Rowling, author of the ‘Harry Potter‘ series. In 2006 a minor planet was named after her: ‘43844 Rowling’.