helter-skelter

Likely onomatopoeic; with Middle English skelten ("to hasten"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/
• Hyphenation: hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter

helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)

1. In confused, disorderly haste.
   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721, page 21:

     But the butterflies were dead. A whiff of rotten eggs had vanquished the pale clouded yellows which came pelting across the orchard and up Dods Hill and away on to the moor, now lost behind a furze bush, then off again helter-skelter in a broiling sun.

   • 1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, p. 104

     Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.

helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)

1. Carelessly hurried and confused.
   • 1994, Warren Bargad, "To Write the Lips of Sleepers": The Poetry of Amir Gilboa (page 232)

     Although his existential thoughts seem to have been tossed onto the page in helter-skelter fashion, what Gilboa does here is to open his mind and heart to the reader through verbal jaggedness and poetic unneatness.

• willy-nilly
• pell-mell

helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)

1. Confusion or turmoil.
   • 2014, busbee and Meghan Kabir, “Enemy Fire”, in Young Blood‎, performed by Bea Miller:

     (Oh, oh, oh) / I'm looking for some shelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / From the helter-skelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / Just keep me away from / All who conspire / (Enemy fire...)

2. (Britain) A helical fairground slide.
   • 2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:

     For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.