Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A combination of incongruous things: "In the minds of many, the real and imagined causes for Russia's defeats quickly mingled into a potpourri of terrible fears” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
- n. A miscellaneous anthology or collection: a potpourri of short stories and humorous verse.
- n. A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A dish of different kinds of meat and vegetables cooked together; a stew.
- n. Hence A miscellaneous collection; a medley. Specifically— A mixture of the dried petals of rose-leaves or other flowers with spices and perfumes. It is usually kept in jars for its fragrance.
Wiktionary
- n. A collection of various things; an assortment, mixed bag or motley.
- n. An anthology of miscellaneous prose.
- n. music A medley of songs or music.
- n. A mixture of dried fragrant plant material, often in a decorative bowl, used to scent a room.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A ragout composed of different sorts of meats, vegetables, etc., cooked together.
- n. A jar or packet of flower leaves, perfumes, and spices, used to scent a room.
- n. A piece of music made up of different airs strung together; a medley.
- n. A literary production composed of parts brought together without order or bond of connection.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a musical composition consisting of a series of songs or other musical pieces from various sources
- n. a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
- n. a jar of mixed flower petals and spices used as perfume
Etymologies
- French pot pourri, meaning "rotten pot", itself from Spanish olla podrida, same meaning and name of a stew. (Wiktionary)
- French pot pourri (translation of Spanish olla podrida) : pot, pot; see potiche + pourri, past participle of pourrir, to rot (from Old French purir, from Vulgar Latin *putrīre, from Latin putrēscere; see putrid). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Right into the hands of what I refer to as the potpourri of global scum, Braun told”
“Wipe out with a damp paper towel, much easier than loose potpourri is to clean.”
“Trivia note -- book D-292 under "potpourri" -- THE INSIDERS by Booth Mooney: Mooney wound up in Washington as an aide to LBJ and a lobbyist, but Robert E. Howard fans know him better as one of REH's youthful amateur-press associates in Texas in the '20s.”
“The French call it potpourri because that means "rotten pot.”
“What she didn't mention was that I'd come from Italy and I had all these bags of an herbal mixture called potpourri, which I'd got from the Pharmacia de Santa Berria”
“What is best described as a potpourri of opportunities for artist to share their talent,”
“The covers are endlessly fascinating, especially the "potpourri" section. "potpourri" indeed, everything from William Burroughs to Frank Edwards to G. Harry Stine to endless historical potboilers and nurse novels.”
“Chatting with me in the Perelman's café, Joseph Rishel, the museum's senior curator of European painting, told me that he'd like to see a future "potpourri" exhibition in that space, drawing cross-cultural connections among diverse permanent-collection works from around the world.”
“He told officers he'd been smoking "potpourri," apparently referring to an herbal substance meant to produce feelings similar to that of marijuana.”
“The detective said Lipski admitted to smoking "potpourri" to get high before driving.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘potpourri’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Groups
Words synonymous with 'group.'
congregation, crowd, gaggle, flock, clique, bunch, cluster, herd, mass, mob, multitude, organization and 118 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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TECH - furniture
The universe as IKEA sees it.
Furniture, haberdashery, household articles and a lot more. The bulk of the list (750 entries) are IKEA articles in the original English version IKEA use...active-response c..., add-on-unit for s..., adjustable slatte..., alarm clock, alkaline battery, anti-slip socks, anti-slip underlay, armchair, armrest, artificial flower, artificial garland, artificial plant ... and 830 more...
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A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of...
amalgam, medley, conglomerate, pastiche, mishmash, motley, miscellaneous, various, sundry, congeries, potpourri, omnifarious and 5 more...
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Intertanglement
A list of bejumble and minglement.
intertanglement, mixture, commingle, commixtion, immixture, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, intermixture, medley, minglement, mingle-mangle, blendure and 60 more...
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Shopping From Home (For Words)
The list begins with evocative words I found in a Bed Bath & Beyond catalog, but other words in a similar vein are welcome, with two simple rules: they must come out of catalogs, and they can't...
sconce, mercer, urn, crock, pique, taffeta, chenille, ensemble, crescent, flocked, stockpot, microfiber and 40 more...
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The Sweet Smell of...
Things that smell good.
rain, rose, cinnamon, clove, jasmine, apple, sandalwood, rexo, bamboo, bacon, maple, eucalyptus and 36 more...
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Collections
Have I made this list before? Has someone else collected these words together? I can't remember, so I'm just going to start storing some things here.
collection, omnium-gatherum, sylloge, antiphonary, anthology, bestiary, cartulary, dossier, sampler, assortment, variety, hodgepodge and 65 more...
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dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
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There's a word for that?
temerity, tacit, froward, faineant, caterwaul, menagerie, ennui, sine qua non, lissom, multifarious, laconic, katzenjammer and 240 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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Into the mix
A medley of mixtures, mostly ones where the constituents are still distinct. I tagged kinds of stew.
mixture, commixture, admixture, intermixture, intermingling, commingling, mingling, marriage, union, integration, syncretion, permutation and 129 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for potpourri.
chained_bear I really like "what in the name of God's ass...?" How delightful. Aug 31, 2009
bilby People give them to us. What are they for? Aug 30, 2009
frogapplause What about mandles? Aug 29, 2009
Prolagus Because we are men. We are different. We have only one word for soap. We do not own candles. We have never seen anything of any value in a craft shop. We do not own magazines fill of photographs of celebrities with all their clothes on. When we have conversations, we actually take it in turns to talk! But we have not yet reached that level of earth-shattering boredom and inhuman despair that we would have a haircut recreationally. We don't know how to get excited about... really, really boring things, like ornaments, bath oil, the countryside, vases, small churches. I mean, we do not even know what, what in the name of God's ass is the purpose of pot-pourri! Looks like breakfast, smells like your auntie!
(Coupling, ep. 3×6) Aug 29, 2009