hurlyburly

See also: hurly-burly

English

Alternative forms

hurly-burly

Etymology

A combination of hurling and burling. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Needs sourcing; see talk page.”)

Pronunciation

Audio (US): (file)

Noun

hurlyburly (countable and uncountable, plural hurlyburlies)

(archaic) A noisy and disorderly tumult and confusion, especially as of battle.
- 1550, Steuen Mierdman, The market or fayre of usurers:
  ...for nought is ceaſſed and gone already, what an hurlyburly (?) inconvenience ſhoulde followe or it maye be eaſely perceived.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 131:
  1. When ſhall we three meet againe? / In Thunder, Lightning, or in Raine? / 2. When the Hurly-burley's done, / When the Battaile's loſt, and wonne.
- c. 1933, “Twentieth-Century Blues”, performed by Noël Coward:
  Why is it that civilized humanity / Can make the world so wrong? / In this hurly-burly of insanity / Our dreams cannot last long

Translations

noisy and disorderly tumult

Finnish: melske
Greek: αναμπουμπούλα (el) f (anampoumpoúla)
Irish: hurla burla m, gírle guairle m
Japanese: 喧騒 (ja) (kensō)
Russian: суматоха (ru) (sumatoxa), переполох (ru) (perepolox), смятение (ru) (smjatenije)
Swedish: oväsen (sv) n, tumult (sv)