abhor: to
regard with extreme repugnance : to feel hatred or loathing for : loathe
Abhor implies strong feelings of
repugnance, disgust, and aversion. This degree of distaste is seen in the
word's history. In earlier use, abhor sometimes implied an actual shrinking
away from something in horror or repugnance. Appropriately, the word's Latin
source, the verb abhorrēre, comes from the prefix ab- ("from, away")
and the verb horrēre ("to bristle, shiver, or shudder"). As you may
have guessed, the Latin horrēre is also the source of the English words horror,
horrify, and horrible.
smorgasbord a
luncheon or supper buffet offering a variety of foods and dishes (such as hors
d'oeuvres, hot and cold meats, smoked and pickled fish, cheeses, salads, and
relishes)
2 : an often large heterogeneous mixture :
mélange
Although smorgasbord might make
us think of a variety of foods, the Swedish word smörgås refers to a particular
food item—an open sandwich or, alternatively, a slice of bread covered with
butter—which is a staple of the traditional Swedish smorgasbord. (The word smör
means "butter," and gås can mean "a lump of butter" as well
as "goose.") Smörgås teamed up with the Swedish word bord, meaning
"table" or "board," to form smorgasbord; the word first
appeared in English in the later part of the 19th century. By the mid-20th
century smorgasbord was being used outside of food-related contexts to refer to
something that comprises a mixture or assemblage of different parts.