Word of the Day Archive
Thursday December 11, 2003
gallimaufry \gal-uh-MAW-free\
, noun:
A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.
Today bilingual programs are conducted in a gallimaufry of around 80 tongues, ranging from Spanish to Lithuanian to Micronesian Yapese.
-- Ezra Bowen, "For Learning or Ethnic Pride?", Time, July 8, 1985
We have the same eyes dark and chestnut hair. But I am a lame gallimaufry and she remains perfect.
-- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Maran reports the daily jostlings and thrivings in a public school with 3,200 students, 185 teachers, 45 languages, a principal and five vice principals, five safety monitors, 62 sports teams and a gallimaufry of alternative programs, clubs and cliques.
-- Colman McCarthy, "A Writer Goes Back to School", Washington Post, August 20, 2001
Gallimaufry, originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," comes from French galimafrée, from Old French, from galer, "to rejoice, to make merry" (source of English gala) + mafrer, "to eat much," from Medieval Dutch maffelen, "to open one's mouth wide."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gallimaufry
