Hotchpot

Word of the Day for Sunday, January 29, 2012

hotchpot \HOCH-pot\, noun:

the bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally.

She continued, "This is what I can give into the hotchpot." I could not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all seriousness? "What will each of you give?..."
-- Bram Stoker, Dracula

These amounts are to be deducted from my boys only in the event that their shares may be large enough to permit and are not to be brought into hotchpot, and shall be paid to my two daughters Elizabeth and Katharine in equal shares.
-- Wallace Stevens, The Letters of Wallace Stevens

Dating back to the early 1200s, hotchpot literally meant "shake-pot" in Anglo-French. It is related to the word hodgepodge.

With thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/