Etymology

pell-mell

Today it means: Hasty and uncontrolled. Full definition →

French pêle-mêle ← Old French pesle-mesle
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The story

  1. Old French · derived frompesle-mesle
  2. French · borrowed frompêle-mêle
  3. English todaypell-mell

From French pêle-mêle, from Old French pesle-mesle, apparently a rhyme based on the stem of mesler (“to mix, meddle”). Compare meddle, melee.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.