Dictionary

farrago en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /fəˈɹeɪɡoʊ/
• /fəˈɹɑːɡoʊ/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin farrāgō (“mixed fodder; mixture, hodgepodge”), from far (“emmer (a kind of wheat), coarse meal, grits”). Doublet of farro.

Meanings

1. A collection containing a confused variety of miscellaneous things.
   • And this is where the larger problem lies: when states try to enforce impossible bans, everyone loses. 3D printing farragoes have all the hallmarks of the absolute worst kind of ineffectual ban: one which encourages overly draconian laws that carry huge side effects, and that ultimately to have little to no effect. 2013 May 10, James Ball, “US government attempts to stifle 3D-printer gun designs will ultimately fail”, in The Guardian:
   • Or, This is a farrago of absurdity, I could never feel anything of the sort myself. 1929 September, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, uniform edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1931 (April 1935 printing), →OCLC, page 72:
   • Yet do I carry every vvhere vvith me ſuch a confounded farago of doubts, fears, hopes, vviſhes, and all the flimſy furniture of a country Miſs's brain! 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 20:
   • It has been pointed out in this space before that a number of the titles you'll find shelved under self-help in your local bookshop are, on closer examination, farragos of wooden-headed tripe, written by mountebanks and halfwits. 2007 June 15, Oliver Burkeman, “The rise of the anti-self-help movement”, in The Guardian:
   • Balfe's next work, 'The Maid of Artois,' was written to a libretto furnished by Bunn, the first of those astonishing farragoes of balderdash which raised the Drury Lane manager to the first rank amongst poetasters. a. 1900, William Barclay Squire, “Balfe, Michael William”, in Dictionary of National Biography, volume 3:
   • Back in Paris, where all men adrift naturally float, he succeeded in publishing a fantastic novel, “Sortie d’un Rêve,” a farrago of all that is most foolish in the earlier romantic authors, with here and there a racy turn—“a personal note,” M. Zola would say. 1885 July, “A Forgotten Pamphleteer”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine, volume 37, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 84:
   • Hastily adapted by slovenly hacks, their librettos (often witty in the original) became incredible farragos of metreless doggrel and punning ineptitude. 1911, “Drama, 11f: Modern English Drama”, in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
   • The original script is a complicated farrago of intertwined greed and lust, with marriages being planned and hearts being broken in order to accumulate fortunes as well as romance. 2005 November 7, Toronto Star:
   • The farrago may have deprived Farage of a fancy bank account, but Alison Rose, chief executive of Coutts’ less exclusive owner, NatWest, gave him something much more valuable: the moral high ground. 2023 December 31, Jasper Jolly, “A Farage farrago, crypto crime and rivers of cash: the 2023 Observer business awards”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Deriveds

farraginous

Relateds

grab bag · miscellany · heteroclite · eclectic · farro · bric-a-brac

Synonyms

bric-a-brac · hodgepodge · hodgepodge · anthology · crazyquilt · cocktail · mixture · mingle-mangle · medley · olla podrida · salmagundi · gallimaufry · pastiche · galimatias · hotchpotch · congeries · oddments · smorgasbord · gatherum · catch-all · clamjamfrey · mingle-mangle · patchwork quilt · mixed bag · mishmash · hotchpot · rummage · welter · potpourri · slurry · miscellany · jumble · job lot · farrago · bouillabaisse · grab bag · motley · odds and ends · disjecta membra · melange · omnium-gatherum · olio · melange · gallery · miscellanea · macedoine · Whitman's sampler · salad · ragbag · horse and rabbit stew

Translations (20)

bo སྣེ་འདོམས (confused miscellany) · fr méli-mélo (confused miscellany) · he בליל (confused miscellany) · pt farragem (confused miscellany) · bg смесица (confused miscellany) · bo སྙག་གེ་སྙིག་གེ་ཟང་ཟིང (confused miscellany) · bg бъркотия (confused miscellany) · pt gororoba (confused miscellany) · ru вся́кая вся́чина (confused miscellany) · bo སྣེ་འཛོམས (confused miscellany) · fr fatras (confused miscellany) · ba ваҡ-төйәк (confused miscellany) · fi sekamelska (confused miscellany) · es farrago (confused miscellany) · bo རྙོག་ཟིང (confused miscellany) · hy շիլափլավ (confused miscellany) · la farrāgō (confused miscellany) · fr mélange (confused miscellany) · cmn 大雜燴 /大杂烩 (confused miscellany) · es fárrago (confused miscellany)