"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 11/10/17(argy-bargy, hoity-toity)

I had an e-mail from Geoffrey Davies who asked, "Where does the term agry-bagry comes from? I get a bargy bit, but why argy?" And it's a good question. And it's an example of what linguists call, and I've mentioned it on the show before, a reduplicative compound. It's a combination of words that echo each other, that rhyme in some way. And often one of this word has very little inherent sense, and it is simply added on to provide a bit of a sound effect, if you like. English is asolutely full of concoctitions like this. Higgledy-piggledy. Shilly-shally. Helter-skelter. Hugger-mugger. Roly-poly. Hioty-toity. Hoity-toity is a good one, becuse to hoit was an old verb for indulgigng in riotous mirth. It's a great definitionin the dictionary, which I quite like. But back to argy-bargy... It's actually the argy element, that carries the sense of the word, not the bargy, as Geoffrey thought. It's a variation on argle, which was a Scottish dialect form of argue, and has been around since the 16th century. And to argle-bargle became a sort of joking reference, really, to bandying words in a very stubborn, obstinate argument over something. And the bargle was there simply to add a rhyming element, but perhaps that element of pushing and shoving and barging somebody around, whether literally or metaphorically, but it all goes back to argy-bargy, which I almost like better then argy-bargy.