Word of the Day

: April 27, 2008

mélange

noun may-LAHNZH (the N is not pronounced, but the vowel is nasalized)

What It Means

: a mixture often of incongruous elements

mélange in Context

Critics panned the new film as an awkward mélange of heavy drama, zany comedy, and overblown special effects.

Did You Know?

"Mélange" got mixed into the melting pot of English back in the 1600s. It derives from the Middle French verb "mesler," which means "to mix." "Mélange" is actually one of several French contributions to the English body of words for miscellaneous mixtures. "Pastiche" (meaning "a composition made up of selections of different works," or broadly, "a disorderly mixture, hodgepodge") is borrowed from French, and "medley" and "potpourri" have roots in French, too. There's also the lesser known "gallimaufry" (meaning "hodgepodge"), which comes from the Middle French "galimafree" (meaning "stew").