farraginous

[ fuh-raj-uh-nuhs ]

adjective

1. consisting of a farrago or mixture; heterogeneous; mixed:

   a farraginous collection of random ideas.

Word History and Origins

Origin of farraginous¹

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin farrāgin- (stem of farrāgō ) “mixed grains” ( farrago ) + -ous

Example Sentences

It offers the spectator about as much of Joyce's "chaffering allincluding most farraginous chronicle" as a two-hour stopover at Shannon would offer him of Ireland.

From Time Magazine Archive

Marjorie got it right, but she promptly missed farraginous.

From Time Magazine Archive

"A chaffering, all including most farraginous chronicle" is James Joyce's definition of his Ulysses, a book which many a critic considers the most important novel of its generation.

From Time Magazine Archive

And one of his most furious assailants thus salutes him:—“Whether you are a wrangling Wapping attorney, a pedantic pretender to criticism, an impudent paradoxical priest, or an animal yet stranger, an heterogeneous medley of all three, as your farraginous style seems to confess.”

From Project Gutenberg

Not so well acquainted with the oeconomy of nature, which teaches us that plants were chiefly destined for the food of various animals, they sought in every herb some latent healing virtue, and frequently endeavoured to make up the want of efficacy in one by the combination of numbers: hence the extreme length of their farraginous prescriptions.

From Project Gutenberg