scowderment

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Northern English dialect: confusion, bustle, or turmoil, especially commotion while preparing for an event or carrying out household work

   The old sailor imagined a great scowderment on Judgment Day as the dead rose among the tombstones.

From northern English dialect scowder ("confusion, bustle, disorder") + -ment. Francis Kildale Robinson's nineteenth-century Whitby glossary records scow, scowder, and scowderment for commotion surrounding preparations or household work. The deeper origin of this scowder is uncertain and is distinct from the Scots verb meaning "scorch."

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