miscellany

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Middle French miscellanées (“miscellanies”), a feminine plural recorded in Middle French from 1570, and its source borrowed from Latin miscellānea, a neuter plural;^[2][3][4][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the French origin probable,^[6] and Etymonline derives the word from Latin alone.^[7] The ending was assimilated to the English suffix -y.^[8][4] The Latin noun meant a writing on miscellaneous subjects, and originally a hash or hodgepodge of meat, the food given to gladiators;^[7] it is the noun use of miscellāneus (“mixed”),^[7][2] from miscellus (“mixed”), from misceō (“to mix”),^[7][9][10] which Etymonline traces to the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *meyḱ- (“to mix”).^[7][1] The Latin verb is also the source of mix and, according to Word Origins, of promiscuous.^[5][10] The rare adjective miscellany, "miscellaneous", recorded from 1629, was taken directly from the Latin adjective.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the plural, separate articles or studies on a subject collected into one volume: 1598, in H. Ince's translation of J. Kimedoncius, Of Redemption of Mankind.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s in the general sense of a mixture or medley,^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1601^[6] and Barnhart 1615.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word started out as a bookish term for a gathering of writings, and soon broadened to any mixture or assortment of things, recorded from 1609 in the title page of Thomas Ravenscroft's Pammelia.^[2] From 1615 a miscellany was also a single book of miscellaneous pieces on various subjects, the sense that Etymonline dates to the 1630s.^[2][7] The Shorter Oxford notes that the older plural use, for separate studies collected in one volume, is long rare or obsolete.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a mass formed out of various kinds", quoting Pope and Swift on books of miscellanies, and listed the adjective too, with a quotation from Bacon on "miscellany forces of all nations".^[11] Carlyle used the plural once (1840) for people of various kinds.^[2]

Timeline

• 1598 – in the plural, separate writings collected into one volume.^[2]
• 1609 – a mixture, medley or assortment.^[2]
• 1615 – a book containing miscellaneous pieces on various subjects.^[2]
• 1629 – adjective, mixed, miscellaneous (obsolete by 1888).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mixed collection of different things; a medley or hodgepodge: The drawer held a miscellany of keys, string and old coins.^[12][6][2]
2. A book or volume of writings on various subjects, often by different authors; an anthology.^[12][6][2]
3. (rare) In the plural, separate articles or studies collected in one volume.^[6][8]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Of various kinds; miscellaneous.^[6][2][11]

Related words

• miscellanea
• miscellaneous
• miscellanist
• mix
• promiscuous

Usage notes

British speakers usually stress the second syllable, /mɪˈsɛləni/, and Americans the first, /ˈmɪsəleɪni/.^[12][6] The OED notes that early sources agree that the stress fell originally on the first syllable; stress on the second syllable arose by analogy with other four-syllable words in -any such as mahogany and epiphany, and is not recorded in dictionaries until the early 20th century.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins