pell-mell

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2006 is: pell-mell • \pell-MELL\  • adverb 1 : in mingled confusion or disorder 2 : in confused haste Examples: Autograph seekers rushed pell-mell into the hotel lobby in an effort to meet the famous actress. Did you know? The word "pell-mell" was formed through a process called "reduplication." The process -- which involves the repetition of a word or part of a word, often including a slight change in its pronunciation -- also generated such terms as "bowwow," "helter-skelter," "flip-flop," and "walkie-talkie." Yet another product of reduplication is "shilly-shally," which started out as a single-word compression of the question "Shall I?" "Pell-mell" traces to the Middle French "pelemele," which has the same meaning as the English "pell-mell." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.