Hugger-Mugger
Noun.
1: secrecy
2: confusion, muddle
[Origin: one of a number of similar-sounding reduplicated words in use around this time and meaning much the same thing, including hucker-mucker, which may be the original of the bunch if the root is, as some think, Middle English mukre “to hoard up, conceal.”]
(1529)
Adjective:
1: secret
2: of a confused or disorderly nature: jumbled.
-hugger-mugger adverb.
“No, her book would hold a dark mirror to such conceits. Since Mother Eve’s day, women had whispered of herb lore and crafty potions, the wise woman’s weapons against the injustices of life; a life of ill treatment, the life of a dog. If women were to be kicked into the kitchen they might play it to their advantage, for what was a kitchen but a witch’s brewhouse? Men had no notion of what women whispered to each other, hugger-mugger by the chimney corner; of treaclish syrups and bitter pods, of fat black berries and bulbous roots. – A Taste for Nightshade, Martine Bailey.
Whenever I hear that word I think of Laibach’s song “F.I.A.T.”
That would be a very different meaning to the actual one.
I like this possible etymology;
mjugg means “sly”, so probably cognate with the ME muckre. Maybe with British slang “mucker”=”friend”.
Caine@#2:
That would be a very different meaning to the actual one.
Yup! My definition was intercepted by art. It’s a word I don’t encounter much, so that became my canonical version.
Rob:
Ooooh, thank you for that! There is a slyness to huggermugger.