smorgasbord
a wide variety, a collection
TRANSLATION
smorgasbord = das Sammelsurium, die bunte Mischung --- GOOGLE INDEX smorgasbord: approximately 2,700,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The festival opened with several keynote speakers offering brief summaries of their big ideas; a kind of SMORGASBORD for the brain.
(BBC News)
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The shoes are something of an athletic SMORGASBORD that lets the wearer mix and match the various parts of the shoe, from uppers to insoles to the studs that dig into the ground to improve traction.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
(BBC News)
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The shoes are something of an athletic SMORGASBORD that lets the wearer mix and match the various parts of the shoe, from uppers to insoles to the studs that dig into the ground to improve traction.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
Did you
know?
smorgasbord
noun
- a wide variety of something
- a mixture of many different hot and cold Scandinavian dishes which are arranged so that you can serve yourself
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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WORD ORIGIN
The Swedish word Smörgasbord is a compound noun made up of the words Smörgs (sandwich) and Bord (table). In turn, Smörgas consists of the words Smör (butter) and Gas (literally goose, but in its old meaning, it's the churned butter floating on the skimmed milk).
According to the Swedish linguist, Catharina Grünbaum, Gas referred to pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of cream when it was churned. These pieces resembled fat geese swimming to the surface. Such pieces were just the right size to be placed and flattened out on bread. Smörgas then came to mean butter and bread together.
Smörgasbord refers to a Scandinavian meal that is served buffet style. It is typically a holiday or celebratory feast at which the family and guests can take whatever they fancy from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant, the term refers to a buffet-style table laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.
Thus in English smorgasbord is used in a figurative sense to describe a large variety of something.
(adapted from Wikipedia)
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SYNONYMS
buffett, collection, combination, goulash, hash, hodgepodge, jumble, medley, mélange, miscellany, mishmash, mixed bag, patchwork, potpourri
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"There was a smorgasbord of ideas presented at the meeting today."
noun
- a wide variety of something
- a mixture of many different hot and cold Scandinavian dishes which are arranged so that you can serve yourself
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The Swedish word Smörgasbord is a compound noun made up of the words Smörgs (sandwich) and Bord (table). In turn, Smörgas consists of the words Smör (butter) and Gas (literally goose, but in its old meaning, it's the churned butter floating on the skimmed milk).
According to the Swedish linguist, Catharina Grünbaum, Gas referred to pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of cream when it was churned. These pieces resembled fat geese swimming to the surface. Such pieces were just the right size to be placed and flattened out on bread. Smörgas then came to mean butter and bread together.
Smörgasbord refers to a Scandinavian meal that is served buffet style. It is typically a holiday or celebratory feast at which the family and guests can take whatever they fancy from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant, the term refers to a buffet-style table laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.
Thus in English smorgasbord is used in a figurative sense to describe a large variety of something.
(adapted from Wikipedia)
---
SYNONYMS
buffett, collection, combination, goulash, hash, hodgepodge, jumble, medley, mélange, miscellany, mishmash, mixed bag, patchwork, potpourri
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"There was a smorgasbord of ideas presented at the meeting today."
