menagerie

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ménagerie,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} earlier mesnagerie,^[2] formed from mesnage (“household”) (now ménage) and the suffix -erie, the source of -ery.^[2][4][7][8] In Middle French the word meant the running of a household and especially of a farm (1530), then a dovecote (1552) and a farmyard or farm; it is recorded for a collection of wild animals from 1664.^[2] The Old French noun is the source of ménage, and is related to manor and mansion.^[3][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A collection of wild animals kept in cages or enclosures, or the place where they are kept: 1676, in Robert Hooke's diary.^[2][4] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to 1712, in the English spelling menagery,^[11][3] and Dictionary.com to 1705–15.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The French word moved from the care of domestic animals on a farm to a place for keeping exotic animals for show;^[13][14][2] English borrowed it with this later sense.^[2][3] Barnhart notes that apart from the single Anglicized spelling menagery, the French spelling and something like the French pronunciation have stayed in English.^[11] An extended use is recorded from 1771, in Henry Mackenzie's Man of Feeling,^[2] and by the mid-19th century the word was used of a collection of strange or outlandish people.^[5][4] From 1749 to 1830 it could also mean an aviary.^[2][5] In the dialects of Lincolnshire, Shropshire, Sussex and Hampshire a menagerie was a jumble of odds and ends, a mixed gathering or a confused state of things.^[15]

Timeline

• 1676 – a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition, or the place where it is kept.^[2][4]
• 1712 – the anglicized spelling menagery.^[11][3]
• 1749 – an aviary (obsolete by 1830).^[2]
• 1771 – extended use, a varied collection.^[2]
• mid 19th century – a collection of strange or outlandish people.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A collection of wild or exotic animals kept in cages or enclosures, especially for exhibition, as in a travelling circus.^[4][14][2]
2. The place where such animals are kept and shown.^[14][4][2]
3. A varied or odd group of people or things: The party drew a menagerie of artists, poets and hangers-on.^[4][5]
4. (obsolete) An aviary.^[4][2][5]

Related words

• ménage
• manor
• mansion
• remain

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)