the.com/shambles

means A state of total chaos or disorder — things in complete disarray.

from Goes back to Old English 'sceamol,' a stool or bench, which came from Latin 'scamellum.' The word narrowed to mean a bench for selling meat, then the meat-market street itself (several English towns still have a street called The Shambles), and finally the slaughterhouse attached to it. From there it was a short, grim step to 'scene of bloody carnage,' and from carnage to its modern, thankfully tamer sense of any utter mess.