Word of the Day

Saturday, December 17, 2005

melange

\may-LAHNZH\ , noun;

A mixture; a medley.

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Quotes:

Interspersed with diverse lectures and classroom activities were periods of financial difficulty, military service, and employment as a private tutor, all of which added to the curious melange of experiences that would ultimately blossom into his unexpected and remarkable life's work.

-- Norman Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten

The smell in the car . . . was a pungent, sour melange of garlic, unwashed bodies, vodka, musty woolen overcoats, and Bulgarian tobacco.

-- Fen Montaigne, Reeling in Russia

Many books in popular psychology are a melange of the author's comments, a dollop of research, and stupefyingly dull transcriptions from interviews.

-- Carol Tavris, "A Remedy But Not a Cure", New York Times, February 26, 1989

Origin:

Melange derives from Old French meslance, from mesler, "to mix," ultimately from Latin miscere, "to mix."