What`s the story behind the word "hodgepodge"? What is it`s origin?

Question

I need it for school and I can`t find any results in google.

Answer 1

From the Online Etymology Dictionary -

alteration of hotchpotch (c.1386), from a legal term in Anglo-Fr. (attested from 1292) for collecting of property in a common pot before dividing it, from O.Fr. hochepot "stew, soup," first element from hocher "to shake," from a Gmc. source (cf. M.H.G. hotzen "shake").

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hodgepodge

That is, the word itself originally meant "stew" as something that was "shaken in a pot"

Answer 2

A mixture of different ingredients, a jumble. It comes from the word hotchpotch which describes a practise in France during the Early Middle Ages. Nobles would throw various pieces of property in a pot before dividing them among sons. (By the way, hotchpotch was one of several causes of the Crusades. After generations of dividing land by hotchpotch, many noblemen did not have sufficient land to support them financially, so they turned their sights on conquering the Holy Land.)