smorgasbord

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsmɔːɡəsˌbɔːd/ (UK); /ˈsmɔɹɡəsˌbɔɹd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Swedish smörgåsbord,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from smörgås “bread and butter, open sandwich”^[2][3][4][5] and bord “table”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Smörgås is itself from smör “butter” and dialectal gås “lump of butter”,^[2][3] literally “goose”.^[2][4] The elements are related to smear, goose and board.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Swedish hors d'oeuvres served as a cold table of open sandwiches and assorted delicacies (1893, or 1879 in Merriam-Webster).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word came to mean any buffet with a wide selection of hot and cold dishes.^[2][5][6][1] The figurative sense of a medley or rich variety of things is recorded from 1948.^[7][4]

Timeline

• 1879 – Merriam-Webster's date.^[5]
• 1893 – the Swedish buffet.^[7][3][4]
• 1948 – a medley or miscellany.^[7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A buffet meal offering many hot and cold dishes, such as hors d'oeuvres, meats, fish, cheeses and salads.
2. A large and varied collection; a medley.

Related words

• buffet
• smear
• goose
• board

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press