Throughother
Disorganised. Confused. Mixed up. A throughother house is one where nothing is in its place; a throughother day has too much going on at once. Applied to people, places, and situations. Compound form: literally 'through-other', everything mixed through everything else.
Etymology
A Scots and Ulster Scots compound from 'through' + 'other'. The construction is parallel to German 'durcheinander' (also literally 'through one another', also meaning confused / mixed up) - the same metaphorical logic gives the same word in two Germanic branches. The standard English compounds 'topsy-turvy' or 'higgledy-piggledy' do similar work but in a different register.
In a sentence
"The kitchen's throughother since the new baby - we'll get it sorted at the weekend."
Historical notes
Throughother is one of the small Ulster Scots preserved compounds that English-elsewhere has not bothered to keep. The word is more controlled and adult than 'topsy-turvy' (which is childlike) or 'all over the place' (which is informal). A throughother house has a particular character: not dirty, not damaged, just disorganised in a way that makes nothing findable. The word's main life is in older Ulster speech.
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry THROUGHOTHER adj. · dictionary
- Macafee, Caroline. A Concise Ulster Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1996. · dictionary