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melange

 [mey-lahnzh, -lahnj]   Example Sentences Origin

mé·lange

   [mey-lahnzh, -lahnj]
noun, plural -langes  [-lahnzh, -lahn-jiz] .
a mixture; medley.
Origin:
1645–55; < French; Old French meslance, equivalent to mesl(er) to mix (see meddle) + -ance noun suffix ≪ Germanic -ingō -ing1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Melange is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
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Example Sentences
  • American culture is a melange of ethnic and regional differences.
  • It is a wonderful melange of the real and the fantastic, the never was and the never could be.
  • The web has to stop being a meringue frosting on the top of business, this make-do melange of mashups and abstraction layers.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
melange or mélange (meɪˈlɑːnʒ)
 
—n
1.  a mixture; confusion
2.  geology a totally disordered mixture of rocks of different shapes, sizes, ages, and origins
 
[C17: from French mêler to mix. See medley]
 
mélange or mélange
 
—n
 
[C17: from French mêler to mix. See medley]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

melange
1653, from Fr. mélange, from mêler "to mix, mingle," from O.Fr. mesler (see meddle).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
mélange   (mā-läɴzh')  Pronunciation Key 
A metamorphic rock formation created from materials scraped off the top of a downward moving tectonic plate in a subduction zone. Mélanges occur where plates of oceanic crust subduct beneath plates of continental crust, as along the western coast of South America. They consist of intensely deformed marine sediments and ocean-floor basalts and are characterized by the lack of regular strata, the inclusion of fragments and blocks of various rock types, and the presence of minerals that form only under high pressure and low temperature conditions.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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