Hello,
This week’s word is hodgepodge (pronunciation here), and its close cousins hotchpotch and mishmash. All three terms describe a mixture of different things, a jumble of items without order or reason.
Hodgepodge of Ribbons
Any crafter has a box, basket or jar containing a hodgepodge. My mother had her button tin thriftily containing snipped off buttons from clothes outgrown by family members, plus odd zips, buckles, and clips of various types. I adored rummaging in it. My daughter has several hodgepodge boxes and jars filled with shells, stones, buttons, beads, and string. As a crocheteer I’ve a large oddments basket stuffed with ends of balls of yarn used as colour inspiration and for smaller trims and striped hats for charity.
A Hodgepodge Jar
Perhaps the crafting female of the species is most drawn to this pack-rat ability to cluster items in a hodgepodge. Anybody creating mood boards on pinterest is channelling the same urge. But most of us will also know a small boy who, if forced to, will turn out an amazing mishmash of items from his pocket (sticks, a feather, broken crayon, a leftover sweet, ammo for a long-lost toy). The adult male will claim to be immune to such gathering but if you investigate closely you will find either a box or drawer containing old plugs, a hotchpotch of batteries, and spare screws. My own DH gathers wood because of his wood-carving hobby so I find hodgepodges of timbers, all sizes, slipped behind trees to dry outdoors or perched in odd places around our shed waiting to fall on me when I pull out the spade.
It doesn’t surprise me that there are so many charming terms for these random collections or that hodgepodge dates back to the 15th century. We humans started as gatherers as well as hunters, remember. In some ways this blog is my hodgepodge of unusual words.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling.
Grace
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