farrago

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [farˈraː.ɡoː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [farˈraː.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

farrāgō f (genitive farrāginis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin far (“emmer, grain”) + -āgō.^[2][1][3] Far is *fars (“flour”); de Vaan thinks the stem may be a loanword for a primitive grain.^[4] Varro has a form ferrāgō, made by popular etymology from ferrum “iron”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Varro onwards.^[4][5] Varro uses it of a mixed crop.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a mixed crop of inferior grains sown for animal fodder, as in Varro, Virgil and Pliny.^[2][6] Festus defines it as what is given to draught animals from several crops.^[6] Columella speaks of a barley farrago.^[7]

Juvenal calls the varied contents of his book nostri farrago libelli, “the hotchpotch of my little book”, and it came to mean a medley or a trifle.^[7][8] Isidore says it is named from far and is barley grass still green.^[9] English farrago “hodgepodge” was borrowed in the 1630s.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of mixed fodder.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Georgics.^[6][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of the medley of his satires.^[7][5]
• 1630s – English farrago is borrowed.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mixed crop of grains grown for fodder, mash.^[2][1]
2. A medley, hotchpotch.^[7][1]
3. A trifle.^[7][8]

Word family

• farrāginārium

Related words

• far
• English farrago

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com