assortment
(əˈsɔːtmənt)
[f. assort v. + -ment; cf. F. assortiment, It. assortimento.]
1. The action of assorting; assorted condition; arrangement or classification into classes or kinds.
| 1611 Cotgr., Proprieté..a handsome or comelie assortment. 1714 R. Johnson Noctes Nottingh. 8 (T.) Of better direction for the assortment and certainty of structure. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 652 If a certain lucky assortment of corpuscles could produce me into being. 1866 Howells Venet. Life (1883) I. iv. 72 The absence of quantity and assortment in his wares. Mod. She was engaged in the assortment of her crewels. |
2. A group of things of the same sort; a class formed by assorting. spec. in Forestry (see quots.). Also attrib.
| 1759 Adam Smith Format. Lang. in Mor. Sent. (1797) II. 407 Those classes and assortments, which, in the schools, are called genera and species. 1774 Burke Sp. Amer. Taxation Wks. II. 431 In such heterogeneous assortments, the most innocent person will lose the effect of his innocency. 1896 W. R. Fisher Schlich's Man. Forestry V. i. v. 248 The various pieces into which a tree may be converted by the woodcutter are termed rough assortments of timber. 1953 Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. i. 13 Assortment table, a volume table in which the volumes are differentiated according to size classes or other criteria affecting utilization. |
3. An assorted set, whether of different varieties of the same thing (as ‘an assortment of silks’) or of various things (as ‘an assortment of goods’); a variety of sorts adapted to various requirements.
| 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing II. ii. 357 To produce an assortment of shades. 1823 Lamb Elia (1860) 416 Having by us a tolerable assortment of these gift-horses. 1823 F. Cooper Pioneer viii. (1869) 36/2 Enough to furnish, in the language of the country, as assortment for a store. 1869 J. Martineau Ess. II. 60 Such as the sample is, will the entire assortment be. |