congeries
nounUK /ˈkɒndʒəɹiːz/ · US /ˈkɑːnd͡ʒəɹiːz/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin congeriēs (“a heap, mass, pile”), from congerō (“to carry together, heap”).
1
A collection or aggregation of disparate items.
- And when the Newtonian philosophy gained ground in Europe, it was the opinion of Cotes rather than that of Newton that became most prevalent, till at last Boscovich propounded his theory, that matter is a congeries of mathematical points...1876, James Clerk Maxwell, “On Action at a Distance”, in Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain:
- The world has seen the postal system developed from a congeries of independent and exclusive services into a well-ordered union, of which all countries enjoy the manifold benefits.1898, William McKinley, Second State of the Union Address:
4 more examples
- I have always taken a lively interest in this singular oasis of comparative civilization and organized society, set in the midst of a congeries of barbarous peoples, over whom its rulers exercise an authority which, if scarcely approaching the settled polity of more advanced communities, is at least in the direction of peace and order.1908, Sir Charles James Lyall, “Introduction”, in T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis, London: David Nutt, page xvii:
- By short cuts known to him, he made his way now through the vast congeries of rooms and staircases to the banqueting-hall, five acres distant on the other side of the house.1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
- Two of the less irrelevantly moving things - a rather large congeries of iridescent, prolately spheroidal bubbles and a very much smaller polyhedron of unknown colours and rapidly shifting surface angles - seemed to take notice of him and follow him about or float ahead as he changed position...1932, H. P. Lovecraft, Dreams in the Witch-House:
- When Washtucna Coulee could not contain the great surge, floodwaters rose to make one of the most significant records on the entire plateau. In two places, they topped the divide between the nearly parallel preglacial Palouse and Snake valleys, crossing it to enter the Snake Canyon. They swept away a loessial cover more than 100 feet thick from 80 square miles of summit area and scored the basalt thus exposed into a congeries of canyons, cataracts, and rock basin.1969 September 23, J. Harlen Bretz, “The Lake Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scabland”, in The Journal of Geology, volume 77, number 5, University of Chicago Press, →JSTOR, Flood Crossings of the Palouse Snake Divide, page 526:
- Related terms
- congest