gallimaufry
noun
Did you know?
If the word gallimaufry doesn't make your mouth water, it may be because you don't know its history. In the 16th century, Middle-French speaking cooks made a meat stew called galimafree. It must have been a varied dish because English speakers chose its name for any mix or jumble of things. If gallimaufry isn't to your taste, season your speech with one of its synonyms: hash (which can be a muddle of chopped meat and potatoes), hotchpotch (a stew or a hodgepodge), or potpourri (another stew turned medley).
Synonyms
- agglomerate
- agglomeration
- alphabet soup
- assortment
- botch
- clutter
- collage
- crazy quilt
- farrago
- grab bag
- gumbo
- hash
- hodgepodge
- hotchpotch
- jambalaya
- jumble
- jungle
- litter
- macédoine
- medley
- mélange
- menagerie
- miscellanea
- miscellany
- mishmash
- mixed bag
- montage
- motley
- muddle
- olio
- olla podrida
- omnium-gatherum
- pastiche
- patchwork
- patchwork quilt
- potpourri
- ragbag
- ragout
- rummage
- salad
- salmagundi
- scramble
- shuffle
- smorgasbord
- stew
- tumble
- variety
- welter
Example Sentences
Armond White, National Review, 30 Aug. 2019 The main text is laced through a gallimaufry of maps, photos, captions and sidebars, and rendered mostly in flat prose. David Greenberg, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2017 Welcome to the weekend miscellany, so named because gallimaufry is too difficult to spell:Maybe Ann Coulter was too quick to give up on Berkeley. Gary Peterson, The Mercury News, 4 May 2017 Word History
borrowed from Middle French galimafree "stew made with various meats," earlier calimafree "kind of sauce," perhaps blend of galer "to squander in pleasures, have a good time" and Middle French dialect (Picard) mafrer "to gorge oneself," borrowed from Middle Dutch moffelen, maffelen "to work the jaws," of imitative origin — more at gallant entry 1
circa 1556, in the meaning defined above
gallimaufry
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- jumble
- medley
- variety
- assortment
- collage
- mélange
- farrago
- miscellany
- hodgepodge
- mishmash
- miscellanea
- ragbag
- hotchpotch
- smorgasbord
- amalgam
- salmagundi
- potpourri
- menagerie
- motley
- pastiche
- patchwork
- stew
- hash
- salad
- blend
- ragout
- rummage
- agglomeration
- gumbo
- olio
- clutter
- jungle
- tangle
- jambalaya
- welter
- shuffle
- litter
- patchwork quilt
- montage
- combination
- agglomerate
- mixed bag
- alphabet soup
- muddle
- accumulation
- scramble
- grab bag
- macédoine
- crazy quilt
- conglomeration
- botch
- tumble
- aggregation
- conglomerate
- sundries
- notions
- detritus
- fusion
- aggregate
- omnium-gatherum
- commixture
- oddments
- olla podrida
- composite
- intermixture
- compound
- catchall
- admixture
- chaos
- alloy
- mess
- morass
- disorder
- imbroglio
- disarray
- bollix
- shambles
- confusion
- snarl
- disarrangement
- odds and ends
- mix-up
- dog's breakfast
- knot
