Hurly-burly
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Noisy disorder, uproar or tumult created by confused activity, argument or conflict. More colourful than commotion or confusion and often suggests noisy public activity. Shakespeare popularised a famous instance but did not originate the word. Regional use: Sixteenth-century English; retained in literary and expressive international English.
Origin
Hurly-burly is first known from 1539 and is probably an altered or reduplicated development from hurling in an older sense of commotion or conflict. Shakespeare made the word memorable in Macbeth, written around 1606, when a witch asks when the hurly-burly will be done. That theatrical instance is more than sixty years later than the dictionary's earliest date, so it is evidence of established expressive use rather than a Shakespearean coinage. Its paired sounds reinforce the sense of repeated noisy movement.
Research Sources
Variants
- The hurly-burly
Usage Examples
- She left the hurly-burly of the newsroom for a quiet regional archive.
- Amid the market's morning hurly-burly, the announcement went almost unheard.
- The chair restored order after ten minutes of procedural hurly-burly.