miscellany

English

WOTD – 27 October 2015

Etymology

Borrowed from French miscellanées, from Latin mīscellānea, from miscellus (“mixed”), from misceō (“to mix”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɪˈsɛləni/, /ˈmɪsələni/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsəleɪni/, /mɪˈsɛləni/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

miscellany (countable and uncountable, plural miscellanies)

1. (countable) An assortment of miscellaneous items.

   Synonyms: miscellanea, congeries, smorgasbord; see also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

2. (countable) A collection of writings on various subjects or topics; an anthology.

   Synonym: reader

   a monthly miscellany of literature

3. (uncountable) The condition of being miscellaneous, of being a hodgepodge.

   Synonym: miscellaneousness

   • 1896 March, Louis H. Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”, in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, volume 57, page 407:

     All of these critics and theorists agree, however, positively, unequivocally, in this, […] that miscellany is abhorrent to their sense; that the sixteen-story building must not consist of sixteen separate, distinct, and unrelated buildings piled one upon the other until the top of the pile is reached.

Related terms

• miscellanea
• miscellaneous
• miscellanist

Translations

Miscellaneous items

Arabic: مُتَفَرِّقات f pl (mutafarriqāt) Bulgarian: смесица (bg) f (smesica) Catalan: miscel·lània (ca) f Czech: směs (cs) f, směsice f, všehochuť (cs) f French: miscellanée (fr) f, mélange (fr) m, collection (fr) f German: Gemisch (de) n Hungarian: egyveleg (hu), keverék (hu) Malayalam: പലവക (ml) (palavaka) Polish: mieszanina (pl) f, zbieranina (pl) f Russian: ра́зное (ru) m (ráznoje) Scottish Gaelic: measgachadh m Spanish: miscelánea (es)

A collection of writings on various subjects, topics

Bulgarian: сборник (bg) m (sbornik), алманах (bg) m (almanah) French: (Recueil scientifique ou littéraire) miscellanées (fr) f pl, (Littéraire ou presse) varia (fr) m German: Sammlung (de) f Polish: miscellanea (pl) nvir pl, varia (pl) nvir pl Romanian: antologie (ro) f, culegere (ro) f Russian: сбо́рник (ru) m (sbórnik) Spanish: miscelánea (es) f, antología (es) f Swedish: antologi (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian: zbirka (sh), zbornik (sh), zbirnik (sh)