Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Pell-mell, hocus-pocus, and clap trap are all examples of reduplications -- expressions formed by the repetition of a sound, syllable, or word.

Reduplications are playful and expressive. For example, to shilly-shally is to be indecisive. And if someone calls you a goody- goody, it's usually meant derisively. During the next few days on this series, we'll examine several reduplications and their life histories.

Helter skelter brings to mind disordered haste. The term is recorded in Shakespeare's 1597 drama Henry IV, where a harried horseman says, "helter-skelter have I rode to thee, and tidings do I bring."

Helter-skelter was once someone's idea of the sound of hurried confusion: The OED says the expression derives from a vocal imitation of "the hurried clatter of feet rapidly and irregularly moved..." This expression is also the name of an amusement ride in Britain, which is constructed like a lighthouse tower with an external spiraling slide, which riders careen down on mats.

The Beatles, in their White Album song "Helter Skelter," referred to this ride in their lyrics: "when I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide/where I stop and I turn for a ride".

The release of this popular song forever changed the implications of this respectable rhyming term. Next time: how the reduplication helter skelter intersected with the infamous Manson Family.

Radio Script > Helter Skelter I