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Dec 18, 2015
This week’s theme
Food as metaphor

This week’s words
bouillabaisse
cherry-pick
rechauffe
saccharine
farrago

farrago
Photo: McBeth

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AWADmail 703

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

farrago

PRONUNCIATION:
(fuh-RAH-goh)

MEANING:
noun: A confused mixture.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin farrago (mixed fodder). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhares- (barley), which also gave us barn, barley, and farina. Earliest documented use: 1637.

USAGE:
“Max Landis’s script cobbles together a farrago of cod* psychology and makeshift backstory to prop up a plot that never finds any cohesive direction.”
Donald Clarke; Creaking at the Seams; Irish Times (Dublin) Dec 4, 2015.
* not genuine

See more usage examples of farrago in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. -Steve Biko, anti-apartheid activist (18 Dec 1946-1977)

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