Search didn't turn up any discussion on this so here I go!
OED definitions :
Hotchpotch - a mixture of things, espc a stew.
Hodgepodge - a variant but also a "clumsy mixture of ingredients"
Hodge : name for a typical English agricultural laborer, a rustic.
Hotch - jerky up and down, move forard in short leaps. also fidget, swarm.
This seems to me to be a wierd combo of meanings!
Which do you use? Hodgepodge or hotchpotch?
I tend to use hodgepodge for a mess of stuff thrown together, either real things or a lot of emotional things.
However I have a new name for my stew with secret ingredients : Ann's Hotchpotch!

I would use hodgepodge. never heard hotchpotch. closest thing would be hopscotch...

I have always used the word hotchpotch in the context of a mishmash pile of stuff or a jumble of miscellaneous things. Then again I have also heard of it referred to as potpourri. I have yet again learned something new in that my definition was incorrect and that it is a stew . . . hmm . . . you can certainly teach an old dog new tricks.

Does anyone know if my memory is faulty when I say that I believe a hotchpotch is also the same thing as hotchpot or is it hodgepot?


Rev. Alimae

Never heard of hotchpotch either. Hodgepodge, on the other hand, is quite a common word here.

hodgepodge is the only term i know..

I'm with the majority so far - never heard of hotchpotch. Is it regional?

Dunno about regional But.
My Gran used to use hotchpotch when describing a mess - especially the messy room of her youngest-of-nine sons!
Mother used hodgepodge for a bunch of different things all in a bunch.
I use hodgepodge mostly - except for the aforementioned "Ann's Hotchpotch" which I intend to make today as we are up to our ankles in fluffy snow and the roads are all slippery so not much else to do. And it smells so good. (Cross-threading- e)

according to W3 (Webster's 3rd Int'l), hotchpotch is an alteration of hotchpot, a thick soup or stew) [F hochepot], which has been further alterated into hodgepodge and broadened in meaning to 'a heterogeneous mixture often of incongruous and ill-suited elements.'

hotchpotch is an alteration of hotchpot, a thick soup or stew

Which is an alteration of hotpot, the pot in which the hotdish, a staple of Minnesota cuisine, is cooked.

yah, sure, you betcha..