gallimaufry \gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun:A medley; a hodgepodge.
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
Then the speech itself, and you have to feel sorry for TQMEM [The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty] having to read out this frightful drivel, this grim gallimaufry of cliches, jargon and outright lies.-- Simon Hoggart, "Grand tradition: Maltravers, Rouge, Garter, Skinner", The Guardian, November 27, 2003
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."
No comments:
Post a Comment