Many reduplications are of this sort - dilly-dally,harum-scarum, humdrum, mumbo-jumbo, namby-pamby.
From theCambridge English Corpus
We should refuse to tolerateharum-scarummethods of buying, not related to national needs or the state of our own industry.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
How many of us do not have regard for the wild,harum-scarumboy of 11 and like him better than the little swot?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
But we still rushedharum-scarumaround the countryside, leaving a trail of devastation and breaking our arms and legsad lib.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
We are not back alley,harum-scarumpoliticians.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
The title is a homonym with an old nonsense expression (harum-scarum, meaning reckless or irresponsible) that has nothing to do with rabbits as such.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
The painter has been described as aharum-scarumcharacter, but also as a dashing painter, who was able to seize quickly and firmly upon a likeness.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.