olio

American  

[oh-lee-oh] / ˈoʊ liˌoʊ /

noun

• olios
  plural

1. a dish of many ingredients.

2. Informal. olla podrida.

3. a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge.

4. a medley or potpourri, as of musical or literary selections; miscellany.

5. Theater.

   1. a specialty act performed downstage while the upstage set is changed.

   2. a performance, as a musical number, presented between scenes or acts.

   3. drop scene.

   4. a program of variety acts, especially the second half of a minstrel show.

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olio British  

/ ˈəʊlɪˌəʊ /

noun

1. a dish of many different ingredients

2. a miscellany or potpourri

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• olios
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of olio

1635–45; < Spanish olla pot, stew < Latin olla, ōla pot, jar

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Explanation

An olio is a hodgepodge of various things. The contents of your desk might be an olio of books and notebooks, uneaten snacks, the mini flashlight you found on the sidewalk, a golf ball, toothbrush and toothpaste, a Frisbee... An olio was originally, and still is, a Spanish or Latin American stew containing a variety of ingredients, such as sausage, perhaps other meats, tomatoes, chickpeas, and various other vegetables. The full name for this stew is olla podrida. The word olio came to be used for any collection of many kinds of different things, especially things that don't really seem to belong together or have anything in common. It can also describe a musical medley or a variety show.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

olio olios

Barkeepers Ben Smith and Austin Polley took over the former Speckled & Drake space and upped their food game, adding an affordable fresh pasta menu with spaghetti aglio e olio, black pepper fettuccine and more.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2023

My father would bathe in spaghetti aglio olio if it weren't frowned upon.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2021

Our preschooler was famished, so we headed to the property’s Italian restaurant, where the attentive wait staff helped us match Sula’s wines with minestrone soup, insalata mista, pizza and spaghetti aglio e olio.

From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2020

While my parents made sure that I hadn’t poisoned my grandmother, I went back to the kitchen and whipped up a simple spaghetti aglio e olio, which I secretly preferred to chanterelles.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019

The second course was a vast lamprey, prawns swimming in its sauce; the third an olio of crane, hare, goose's liver, blackbirds, and wood-pigeons.

From Horace by William Tuckwell

One of my favorite aglio e olios had more coarsely ground, but just as crisp, breadcrumbs.

From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2022

Gargilius, sleek, voluptuous lord, A hundred dainties smoke upon his board; Earth, air, and ocean ransack’d for the feast, In masquerade of foreign olios dress’d.

From A Poetical Cook-Book by Maria J. Moss

The festivities were duly preceded with the religious ceremonies of the great holyday of St. Patrick's feast, and closed by a grand entertainment at night, which included theatricals, recitations and olios of song and sentiment.

From Donahoe's Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 4, April, 1886 Volume 15 (January 1886 - July 1886) by Various

Not dainty now, the squire in haste Fell to, and praised their savory taste; Nay, said his meal had such a gout He ne'er in tarts and olios knew.

From Aesop, in Rhyme Old Friends in a New Dress by Marmaduke Park

Words ending in io or yo add s; as, folios, nuncios, olios, ratios, embryos.

From Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by John Hendricks Bechtel

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