conglomerate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin conglomerātus, the past participle of conglomerō (“to roll together, heap up”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from com- (“with, together”) and glomerō (“to wind into a ball, gather”), from glomus (“ball, as of yarn”).^[3][4][7][5] Etymonline suggests that glomus may come from Proto-Indo-European *glem-, the root of glebe,^[3] and Hoad relates it to globus, the source of globe.^[8] The verb, recorded from 1596, is from the participial stem of the same Latin verb,^[2][4][6] and the noun grew out of the adjective.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gathered together into a rounded mass: 1572, as a past participle, in John Bossewell's Workes of Armorie;^[2][4][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English put the adjective in late Middle English.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

From 1666 physiologists called glands of complex structure conglomerate, as opposed to conglobate ones,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gave this sense first.^[10] Geologists used it from the early 19th century for rock made of rounded fragments cemented together: the OED dates the adjective to 1815 and the noun to 1818,^[2][5] Etymonline the noun to 1809.^[3] The figurative sense, a mixture of unrelated elements, is from 1837 in the OED and 1831 in Etymonline.^[2][3] The business sense, a large corporation formed from diverse companies, is the latest: Barnhart dates it to 1961,^[4] Etymonline to 1963, as short for conglomerate corporation,^[3] and the OED to 1967.^[2] The verb meant to heap together from 1596;^[2] Cockeram's dictionary (1623) has it for winding thread into a ball, and the intransitive sense, to cluster together, is from 1642.^[2][5] The noun conglomeration is recorded from 1626, in Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[4]

Timeline

• 1572 – gathered into a rounded mass, as a past participle.^[2][4]
• 1596 – verb, to heap together.^[2][4]
• 1626 – conglomeration, in Bacon.^[4]
• 1642 – verb, intransitive, to cluster together.^[2][5]
• 1666 – of compound glands, in physiology.^[2]
• 1809 – noun, in geology, in Etymonline;^[3] 1818 in the OED.^[2][5]
• 1837 – a mixture of different elements.^[2]
• 1961 – a large diversified corporation, in Barnhart;^[4] 1967 in the OED.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large corporation made up of companies in widely different businesses: a media conglomerate.^[11][5][2]
2. A mass of different things gathered together; a mixture.^[11][5][2]
3. (geology) A sedimentary rock of rounded pebbles and stones cemented in a finer matrix.^[11][5][2]

Adjective

1. Made up of parts of different kinds or from different sources.^[11][5][2]
2. Gathered into a mass; densely clustered.^[5][2]
3. (geology) Of rock, made up of rounded fragments; of the nature of a conglomerate.^[11][2]

Verb

1. To gather into a mass or coherent whole; to accumulate.^[11][5][2]
2. To come together in a mass; to cluster: Commuters conglomerated around the platform doors.^[5][2]

Word family

• conglomeratic
• conglomerator
• conglomerative
• conglomeration

Related words

• glomerate
• glomeration
• glomerule
• glomerulus
• agglomerate
• globe
• glebe

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins