hotchpotch

From French hochepot, from hocher (“to shake”) + pot (“pot”); of Dutch or German origin. Compare Dutch hutspot.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɒt͡ʃpɒt͡ʃ/

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hotchpotch (plural hotchpotches)

1. Alternative form of hodgepodge (“miscellaneous collection”).
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     A mixture or hotchpotch of many tastes.

   • 2019 December 18, Christian Wolmar, “Overdue investment and a better deal for Welsh railways”, in Rail, page 54:

     The railways in Wales are a bizarre hotchpotch of lines which, remarkably, do not even allow for a journey between the lines in the south and those in the north without venturing across the border into England.

2. Alternative form of hodgepodge (“mixture of ingredients”).
3. (civil law) The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, especially in the case of divorce or intestacy.

   Synonym: collation

4. (archaic) A kind of mutton broth with green peas instead of barley or rice.

• hotchpot
• hotchpotz
• hotch-pot

• farrago, hodgepodge, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag
• See also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

• “hotchpotch”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.