‖ colluvies
(kəˈl(j)uːvɪiːz)
[L. colluviēs (also colluvio, -um) lit. ‘offscourings, washings, swillings’, f. collu-ĕre to wash thoroughly, rinse.]
1. Chiefly Med. A collection or gathering of filth or foul matter; spec. foul discharge from an ulcer.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. 73 The aforesaid Colluvies of the remaining humours. 1710 T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 277 They..stuff up the Lungs with a greater Colluvies of Recrements. 1811 in Hooper Med. Dict. 1881 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
2. Conflux (of waters, etc.).
| 1665–6 Phil. Trans. I. 305 He pretends that all Rivers proceed from a Colluvies or Rendevous of Rain-waters. 1819 Rees Cycl. Colluvies, a term which..writers on the universal deluge have applied to the fluid mass into which..the strata of the antediluvian earth were dissolved. |
3. fig. Medley, rabble, hotchpotch. (So in L.)
| 1647 Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. Ep. Ded. 11 A colluvies of Heresies. 1671 S. Clarke Mirr. Saints & Sinners (ed. 4) I. 45 A colluvies of most filthy lecherous people. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 460 Hannibal..having a mixt colluvies of all nations under him. 1730 Pope Let. to Gay 11 Sept., From the midst of the Colluvies and sink of human greatness at W―r. |