pell-mell

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   in a confused, disorderly rush, without plan or restraint

   The crowd ran pell-mell toward the station when the gates opened.

2. 2
   adj

   hasty, jumbled, and uncontrolled

   Their pell-mell retreat left equipment scattered across the road.

Simplified etymology

Pell-mell is a late Middle English rhyming expression whose second element represents a form of French mesler, “to mix,” related to medley. The first element may come from pelle, “shovel,” suggesting things mixed together with a shovel, though it may simply have been chosen for the rhyme.

Borrowed from French pele-mele, from Old French pesle-mesle, a rhyming expression built around mesler, "to mix or meddle." The related English words melee and meddle reflect the same historical family of mixing and confusion.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary