Hotchpot

For similar terms, see Hodge-podge.

In civil and property law, hotchpot (sometimes referred to as hotchpotch or the hotchpotch rule) is the blending, combining or offsetting of property (typically gifts) to ensure equality of a later division of property.

The Court of Chancery, Plate 22 of Microcosm of London (1808).

The name hotch-pot is taken from a kind of pudding, and 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.