▪ I. miscellany, n.
(ˈmɪsələnɪ, mɪˈsɛlənɪ)
Also 7 missel(l)-, miscel-, 8 misell-.
[app. ad. F. miscellanées fem. pl. (ad. L. miscellānea neut. pl.: see miscellanea), only in sense 2.]
1. A mixture, medley.
| 1617 Bacon in Resuscitatio (1657) 81 A Miscellany and Confusion of Causes of all Natures. 1620 Hic Mulier C 3 b, This Misselanie or mixture of deformities. 1668 Dryden Dram. Poesy Ess. (ed. Ker) I. 84 As for Falstaff, he is not properly one humour, but a miscellany of humours or images, drawn from so many several men. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) 40 A confus'd miscellany of Trees. Ibid. 18 A Miscellany of Christians and Turks together. 1833 Lytton Eng. & Engl. (ed. 2) II. 287 Turn your eyes now to the ultra Radicals, what a motley, confused, jarring, miscellany of irreconcilable theorists! 1847 Tennyson Princess v. 190 Not like the piebald miscellany, man, Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire. 1886 Stevenson Treas. Isl. iv, Under that, the miscellany began—a quadrant, a tin canikin, an old Spanish watch and some other trinkets of little value. |
† b. miscellany madam: ‘a female trader in miscellaneous articles; a dealer in trinkets and ornaments of various kinds’ (Nares). Obs.
| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. iv. i, I would bee..one of your miscelany madams. Ibid., As a miscellany madame [I would] inuent new tyres, and goe visite courtiers. |
2. pl. Separate treatises or studies on a subject collected into one volume; literary compositions of various kinds brought together to form a book. (Common in titles of books.)
| 1615 P. Wentworth (title) The Miscellanie, or, a Registrie, and Methodicall Directorie of Orizons. a 1626 Bacon Let. to Bp. Ely Wks. 1830 XII. 91 This hath put me into these miscellanies, which I purpose to suppress, if God give me leave to write a just and perfect volume of philosophy. 1629 J. Lightfoot (title) Ervbhin or Miscellanies Christian and Judaicall. 1678 Norris Misc. (1699) Pref. 1 To you I humbly present this Collection of Miscellanies, for the entertainment of your liesure hours. 1711 [see miscellaneous 2]. 1733 Swift On Poetry 318 And when they join their pericranies, Out skips a book of Miscellanies. |
3. A book, volume, or literary production containing miscellaneous pieces on various subjects.
| 1638 Herbert Trav. ii. 262 The Alcoran is a miscellany of other prodigious things. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. To Rdr. *3 Wonder not, Courteous Reader, at the Appearance of this early, or rather untimely fruit; a Miscelany only intended for our own private use. 1704 Faction Display'd xiii, Those only purchase everliving Fame, That in my Misellany plant their Name. 1707 (title) The Monthly Miscellany: or, Memoirs for the Curious. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1831) I. 205 He..wrote ‘The Life of Cheynel’, in the miscellany called ‘The Student’. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 107 What appears to me an error in your truly valuable Miscellany. 1872 R. Morris (title) An Old English Miscellany. 1873 H. Rogers Orig. Bible iv. (1874) 163 The Bible, in fact, is a ‘Miscellany’—a very various one. |
4. pl. Persons of various classes. rare.
| 1840 Carlyle Let. Aug. in R. Blunt Carlyles' Chelsea Home (1895) 16 Blackguards, improper females, and miscellanies sauntered. |
▪ II. † miscellany, a. Obs.
[ad. L. miscellāne-us: the form perh. suggested by prec. n. (But cf. momentary).]
= miscellane, miscellaneous.
| 1629 Bacon's War w. Spain 70 A Veterane Army, compounded of Miscellany Forces of all Nations. 1629 (title) Certaine Miscellany Works of The Right Honovrable, Francis Lo. Verulam. 1651 Cleveland Poems 26 The Misselany Satyr, and the Fawn. 1659 Pearson Creed (1839) 29 By their miscellany deities at Rome,..they showed no nation was without its God. 1684 (title) Miscellany Poems Containing a New Translation of Virgills Eclogues, Ovid's Love Elegies [etc.]. 1738 Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 66, I have read..all the miscellany Poems that have been published for twenty Years past. 1756 T. Amory Buncle (1825) I. 1 Miscellany thoughts upon several subjects. |