Mock Latin Words 3

Time for the third installment of the Mock Latin series!

Omnium gatherum ~ So technically, this one is only partly “mock.” 😉 Omnium is indeed a Latin word for “of all things.” Kind of like miscellaneous. In the 1520s (this one is OLD!), people came up with the humorous addition of gatherum to put with it, just from the English “gather.” So of course if you gather all things, you end up with a motley collection, which is exactly what this phrase means. =)

Harum-scarum ~ This phrase actually originated in the 1670s as harum-starum. The harum part is taken from the verb “to harry or harrass,” and then the scarum was added mostly just to rhyme. The -um endings are abbreviations of “them,” the whole phrase meant to be a humurous mock-Latin that would quite literally mean “to harrass and scare them.”

Two installments left in my Mock series!