Origin and history of hodge-podge

also hodge podge, hodge-podge, early 15c., hogpoch, alteration of hotchpotch (late 14c.) "a kind of stew," especially "one made with goose, herbs, spices, wine, and other ingredients," earlier an Anglo-French legal term meaning "collection of property in a common 'pot' before dividing it equally" (late 13c.), from Old French hochepot "stew, soup." First element from hocher "to shake," from a Germanic source (such as Middle High German hotzen "shake").

"confusedly, hurriedly," 1590s, a "vocal gesture" [OED] probably formed from pig and the animal's suggestions of mess and disorder. Reduplications in the h-/p- pattern are common (as in hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, hinch(y)-pinch(y), an obsolete children's game, attested from c. 1600).

Edward Moor, "Suffolk Words and Phrases" (London, 1823), quotes a list of "conceited rhyming words or reduplications" from the 1768 edition of John Ray's "Collection of English Words Not Generally Used," all said to "signify any confusion or mixture;" the list has higgledy-piggledy, hurly-burly, hodge-podge, mingle-mangle, arsy-versy, kim-kam, hub-bub, crawly-mauly, and hab-nab. "To which he might have added," Moor writes, crincum-crankum, crinkle-crankle, flim-flam, fiddle-faddle, gibble-gabble, harum-scarum, helter-skelter, hiccup-suickup, hocus-pocus, hotch-potch, hugger-mugger, humdrum, hum-strum, hurry-scurry, jibber-jabber, prittle-prattle, shilly-shally, tittle-tattle, and topsy-turvy.

Many of these date to the 16th century. Thingum-thangum for an unknown or un-nameable something is from 1670s. Miss Burney (1778) has skimper-scamper "in hurry and confusion." Gay (1728) uses twinkum-twankum as a song refrain "expressing careless jollity" [OED, 1989]. Wiggle-waggle is by 1825, and compare, from French, pell-mell.