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This is my first question on this website, so I hope I don't embarrass myself.

While I was helping my friend study for the GRE exam, I noticed that a lot of the vocabulary lists contained two word expressions, which I had never seen before. They were used to describe such situations as confusion, a mixture and even certain adjectives.

I remember only a few right now, these being:

helter-skelter

hodge podge

hoi polloi

nitty-gritty

pell-mell

The way these were used in sentences simply excited me, due to the sheer beauty and the lack of their usage in common written expositions, these seem like a mystery to me, as they have evolved from many, many languages, with some having ambiguous origins, the contexts they are used in seem clear, and they seem to work so remarkably well whenever employed, and they just seem to add beauty to an otherwise ordinary sentence.

I was therefore wondering if someone here could please provide a reference for a list of these expressions and their meanings and context. Specifically, a list where the above mentioned expressions, with more of similar appearance abound.

I am sorry I don't even know the name of this type of expression, but again I was mesmerized by their beauty, elegance and mysterious origins.

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    'Irreversible binomials' or 'Siamese twins'. Covered here; Wikipedia has a fairly comprehensive list. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 30 '17 at 12:43
  • This question does not appear to be about English language and usage within the scope defined in the help center, being primarily a request for resources. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 30 '17 at 12:44
  • @EdwinAshworth I think it's asking for the name of such a class of words, not a list of words. – NVZ Sep 30 '17 at 12:55
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    As for terms, "reduplication" or one sort or another is implicit in all the terms and examples in the answers to this question. – John Lawler Sep 30 '17 at 13:21
  • @NVZ Are you having trouble understanding 'I was therefore wondering if someone here could please provide a reference for a list of these expressions and their meanings and context. Specifically, a list where the above mentioned expressions, with more of similar appearance abound.'? Can I suggest ELL? Someone accused me of being 'petty' recently. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 30 '17 at 22:30