Etymology

potpourri

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Today it means: A mixture of dried fragrant plant material, often in a decorative bowl, used to scent a room. Full definition →

French pot-pourri ← Spanish olla podrida
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The story

  1. Spanish · calque ofolla podrida“stew”
  2. French · borrowed frompot-pourri“stew, potpourri”
  3. English todaypotpourri

From French pot-pourri (“stew, potpourri”), a calque of Spanish olla podrida (“stew”, literally “rotten pot”). Doublet of olla podrida.

Words from the same roots

Spanisholla podrida all →

olla podrida

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.