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The Word of the Day for January 7 is:

melange   \may-LAHNZH or may-LAHNJ\   (noun)
     : a mixture often of incongruous elements

Example sentence:
     Critics panned the new film as an awkward melange of heavy
drama, zany comedy, and overblown special effects.

Did you know?
     "Melange" got mixed into the melting pot of English back
in the 1600s. It derives from the Middle French verb "mesler,"
which means "to mix." "Melange" is actually one of many French
contributions to the English body of words for miscellaneous
mixtures. "Pastiche" (meaning "a composition made up of
selections of different works," or broadly, "a disorderly
mixture, hodgepodge") is borrowed from French, and "medley,"
"potpourri," and "hodgepodge" all have roots in French too.
There's also the lesser known "gallimaufry" (meaning
"hodgepodge"), which comes from the Middle French "galimafree"
(meaning "stew").

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