medley
UK[ˈmɛdli]US[ˈmɛdli]
n
A varied mixture of people or things.
n
A piece of music consisting of several tunes or songs played one after the other.
Morpheme Breakdown
medley
medley
Unsegmentable
Etymology
The word 'medley' entered English in the 14th century from the Anglo-Norman 'medlee' and Old French 'medlee', meaning a conflict, mixture, or mingling. These derive from the Old French verb 'medler', 'mesler' (to mix, mingle, meddle), which itself originates from the Vulgar Latin 'misculāre', a frequentative form of the Latin 'miscēre' (to mix). The core semantic thread from the Latin root—mixing—has been preserved throughout its journey. While the original sense of armed combat or mêlée faded, the concept of a mixture evolved to describe a musical composition combining different tunes and, by extension, any heterogeneous assortment.
Analysis
Structure: medley (Unsegmentable)
The word is a simplex loanword from Anglo-Norman and Old French. It is not productively formed from separable English morphemes.
Examples
The team was a medley of experienced veterans and enthusiastic rookies.
The band performed a medley of hits from the 1980s.
She prepared a fresh fruit medley for the breakfast buffet.