A state of disorder, confusion, or untidiness.
From dis- (indicating reversal) plus array (from Old French areer 'to arrange,' from Germanic origin). Originally meant 'undress' in the 14th century, then evolved to mean general disorder by the 16th century.
The journey of 'disarray' from meaning 'undressed' to 'disordered' reflects how personal dishevelment became a metaphor for chaos in general. There's something poetic about how the image of clothing in disorder became our way of describing any kind of systematic breakdown.
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