- Today's Word
Medley
[MED-lee]
Definition
- (noun) A mixture, combination, or assortment of different things, especially a collection of musical pieces arranged to be played as a continuous piece. It can also describe any diverse mixture of elements or items blended together.
Example
The street festival offered a delightful medley of cultural performances, local foods, and artistic displays that captured the neighborhood’s diverse heritage.
Fun Fact
The word “medley” comes from the Anglo-Norman French “medlee,” meaning “mixed.” Originally, in medieval times, it referred specifically to hand-to-hand combat or a melee (which shares the same etymology). The term evolved from describing a confused fight to meaning any mixture or combination. In the 16th century, it gained particular significance in textile manufacturing, where a “medley cloth” was made from wool of mixed colors, creating a distinctive mottled appearance. The musical usage emerged in the 18th century, when composers began creating arrangements that combined popular tunes. Swimming competitions adopted the term in the early 1900s for races that combine different strokes, showing how the word continually finds new applications while maintaining its core meaning of “mixture.” Perhaps most interestingly, medieval cookbooks used “medley” to describe what we now call “potluck” dishes – meals made from whatever ingredients were available, mixed together.
(verb) To reduce in intensity, force, or amount; to become less severe or widespread.
The protests didn’t end so much as abate — the crowds thinning gradually over three weeks until one morning the square was simply empty again.