The story
- Irish · derived fromcogar“whisper”
- English todayhugger-mugger
Unknown; perhaps from Anglo-Irish cuggermugger (“a whispering, a low-voiced gossiping”), from Irish cogar (“whisper”). Compare also Scots hudge-mudge, hody-moke, Swedish mjugg (“stealth, secrecy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.