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hugger-mugger

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:47 am
by Klimt
hugger-mugger
[huhg-er-muhg-er]

1. disorder or confusion; muddle.
2. secrecy; reticence: Why is there such hugger-mugger about the scheme?

Most chillingly, Walsh's 2000 play, Bedbound, depicted a young woman who has polio living hugger-mugger with her flamboyant father, in a space little bigger than a double bed.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:03 pm
by Slava
1520–30; earlier hucker-mucker, rhyming compound based on mucker, ME mokeren to hoard
Dictionary.com Unabridged

This would seem to make the second meaning the one based on the origins. I'm none too clear on how the 1st one would have come about. Anyone care to track that one down for us?