Hurly-burly.

Uproar, tumult, especially of battle. A reduplication of hurly. Hurlu-berlu is the French equivalent, evidently connected with hurler, to howl or yell. (See Hullabaloo.)

⁂ In the Garden of Eloquence (1577) the word is given as a specimen of onomʹatopœʹia.

“When the hurly-burly’s done,

When the battle’s lost and won.”

The Witches, in Macbeth i. 1.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Hurly-burly.

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