Assemblages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Groups or collections of various items or people brought together in one place
2. An assortment of elements or entities combined or assembled to form a whole
3. A gathering or array of different objects or individuals assembled collectively

Etymology: "Assemblages" is simply the plural of "assemblage", so the substance lies with its singular. That noun was borrowed from French, where "assemblage" means a gathering or a collection, and it was built on the verb "assembler", to bring together. The French verb itself came from Latin "assimulare", to make similar, a root that reaches back to "simul", meaning together at the same time. The English noun carries the same sense of gathering disparate parts into one group, whether people, objects or materials. Most English nouns ending in "-age" were formed inside English from a verb plus that suffix, which is why "assembly" and "assemblage" can look alike; in this case, though, the ending was taken over with the French word itself. The plural simply follows the usual pattern of adding "-s" to the singular.

Synonyms: collections, gatherings, groups, assemblies, clusters

Antonyms: dispersals, separations, divisions, individuals, isolations