shambolic (chiefly British)
adjective

- confused and badly organized

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Shambolic is likely an alteration of the noun "shambles." A place or situation referred to as a shambles is usually a complete mess, a place of chaos and disorder. The history of the word begins innocently enough with the Latin word scamnum, a stool or bench serving as a seat, step, or support for the feet for example. The diminutive scamillum, "low stool," was borrowed by speakers of Old English as sceamol, "stool, bench, table."

The Old English sceamol then evolved to the Middle English shamel (related to the German "Schemel", footstool), which developed the specific meaning of "a place where meat is butchered and sold."

The Middle English compound shamelhouse meant "slaughterhouse," which in Medieval times actually referred to the open-air fish and meat markets. These were unsightly places because the animal remains were thrown into a channel that ran down the centre of the market stalls.

Shamelhouse eventually developed into "shambles" to figuratively describe "a place or scene of bloodshed" (first recorded in 1593).

Our current, more generalized meaning, "a scene or condition of disorder," is first recorded in 1926.

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SYNONYMS

confused, disordered, helter-skelter, messy, muddled, riotous, turbulent

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today. Say something like:

"It was a shambolic situation in the sales department after the IT system crashed."