Definition:

A compound word that contains rhyming elements, such as blackjack, fuddy duddy, pooper-scooper, and voodoo. Also called rhyme-motivated compounds.

Kenneth Wilson notes that rhyming compounds are "catchy and surprisingly durable self-imitating words such as nitty-gritty, hanky-panky, hurdy-gurdy, nambypamby, and itty-bitty" (Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 2013). 

See Examples and Observations below.

Also see:

• Compound Adjective
• Compound Noun
• Compound Words
• Reduplicative
• Stinky Pinky
• Ten Titillating Types of Sound Effects in Language

 

Examples and Observations:

• "What would the English language be without Georgie-Porgie, tootsy-wootsy, razzle-dazzle, heebie-jeebies, walkie-talkie, nitty-gritty, and polly-wolly-doodle? . . . We barely notice the presence of rhyme in picnic, humdrum, humbug, hobnob, and tidbit: the humor of their inner form has worn off."
  (Anatoly Liberman, Word Origins: Etymology for Everyone. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009)
• "For all the hullabaloo surrounding the 'mobile gaming revolution' there are few games that really tailor themselves well to the medium."
  (Toby Moses, "Extraction: Project Outbreak." The Observber, Nov. 26, 2011)
• "Look out helter skelter
  She's coming down fast
  Yes she is
  Yes she is coming down fast."
  (John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "Helter Skelter")
• "Search Medica excludes the vast penumbra of anecdotal commentary and pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that surrounds most medical topics."
  (Jack Schofield, "Have I Got the Collwobbles?" The Guardian, Sep. 6, 2006)

• "The second element of a rhyming compound in baby talk . . . may represent only the repetition of the first element with the substitution of /w/ for the initial phoneme (kissy wissy, piggy wiggy)."
  (Julie Coleman, "Phonaesthesia and Other Forms of Word Play." Language History and Linguistic Modelling. Mouton de Gruyter, 1997)
• "By now the windows of the car were so steamed up, passersby might think there was some hanky-panky going on."
  (Susan Wiggs, Table for Five. Mira, 2005)
• "Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
  Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing,
  and out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
  I know not Wither, willy-nilly blowing."
  (Edward Fitgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)
• Hoi Polloi and Hoity-Toity
  "When we speak of the hoi polloi . . . we are firmly grounded in an error that common usage over centuries has erased. Certainly, 'the hoi polloi' translates formally and redundantly as 'the the masses" . . ..
  
  "The meaning of the hoi polloi should remain 'the masses,' or in less-Marxist-sounding terms, 'ordinary folk.' When the writer Pete Hamill told the interviewer Charlie Rose, 'Sinatra threw a party for Agnew in Palm Springs with all the hoi polloi in attendance,' Francis Dyer of New York objected, noting that the phrase had not taken on a new meaning of 'important people, upper classes or swells.'
  
  "That upside-down usage occurs often. The confusion comes from the similarity of the noun hoi polloi and the adjective hoity-toity, a rhyming compound from the English dialect term hoit, 'to play the fool,' which has come to mean 'foolishly snooty.'"
  (William Safire, No Uncertain Terms. Simon & Schuster, 2003)

Also Known As: rhyming reduplication, echo compound