THURSDAY, JULY 08, 2021 -
https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/
omnium-gatherum
[ om-nee-uhm-gath-er-uhm ]
noun
a miscellaneous collection.
Omnium-gatherum, “a miscellaneous collection,” has a pretty long history, considering its awkward etymology. A similar word, omnegadrium, occurs about 1430 in Middle English with the meaning “a miscellaneous collection of items in a manuscript.” Omnegadrium is a compound of the familiar Latin combining form omni– “all,” the Middle English verb gaderen “to assemble” (English gather), and the familiar Latin noun suffix –ium. Omnegadrium was re-formed to modern omnium-gatherum, which is a compound of Latin omnium “of all” (the genitive plural of omnis) and the pseudo-Latin word gatherum “a gathering,” formed from gather and the Latin noun suffix –um. Omnium-gatherum entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
HOW IS OMNIUM-GATHERUM USED?
This person wore a large cocked-hat, set rather jauntily on one side, and a black coat, which seemed an omnium-gatherum of all abominations that had come in its way for the last ten years, and which appeared to advance equal claims … to the several dignities of the art military and civil, the arma and the toga ….EDWARD BULWER LYTTON, PELHAM; OR, ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN, 1828
She is best known for collecting dictionaries that represent the very living and breathing edge of the English language: the ragged and ill-defined omnium-gatherum of informal, witty, clever, newborn, and usually impermanent words that constitute what for the past two centuries has been known as slang.
SIMON WINCHESTER, "THE MONGREL SPEECH OF THE STREETS," NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, MARCH 8, 2012