What is "hotchpot"

Hotchpot \Hotch"pot`\, Hotchpotch \Hotch"potch`\, n. [F. hochepot, fr. hocher to shake + pot pot; both of Dutch or German origin; cf. OD. hutspot hotchpotch, D. hotsen, hutsen, to shake. See Hustle, and Pot, and cf. Hodgepodge.]

1. A mingled mass; a confused mixture; a stew of various ingredients; a hodgepodge.

   A mixture or hotchpotch of many tastes.
   --Bacon.

2. (Law) A blending of property for equality of division, as when lands given in frank-marriage to one daughter were, after the death of the ancestor, blended with the lands descending to her and to her sisters from the same ancestor, and then divided in equal portions among all the daughters. In modern usage, a mixing together, or throwing into a common mass or stock, of the estate left by a person deceased and the amounts advanced to any particular child or children, for the purpose of a more equal division, or of equalizing the shares of all the children; the property advanced being accounted for at its value when given.
   --Bouvier. Tomlins.

   Note: This term has been applied in cases of salvage. Story. It corresponds in a measure with collation in the civil and Scotch law. See Collation.
   --Bouvier. Tomlins.

n. 1 hodgepodge; miscellaneous collection 2 (context legal English) The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, especially in the case of divorce or intestacy

In civil and property law, hotchpot (sometimes referred to as hotchpotch or the hotchpotch rule) refers to the blending or combining of property in order to ensure equality of division. It usually arises in cases of divorce or to allocate shares of a deceased person's estate subsequent to advances or lifetime gifts made by the decedent.

The name hotch-pot is taken from a kind of pudding. The term is derived from the French word hocher, or "shake." It was used as early as 1292 as a legal term, and from the 15th century in cooking for a sort of broth with many ingredients (see Hodge-Podge soup), and so it is used figuratively for any heterogeneous mixture.