Meaning

noun a motley assortment of things

noun a theory or argument made up of miscellaneous or incongruous ideas

originFrom Middle English hochepoche, a variation of hochepot, from Old French hochepot, from Middle Dutch hutspot (“beef or mutton cut into small pieces and mixed and boiled together in a pot”), from hotsen, hutsen (“to shake; jog; jolt”) + pot (“pot”), equivalent to hotch + pot. Compare German Low German Hüttspott (“hodgepodge”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0