mongrelism
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mon·grel
(mŏng′grəl, mŭng′-)n.
1. An animal or plant resulting from various interbreedings, especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed.
2. Offensive A person of mixed background or descent.
3. Something that is a mixture or combination of elements: "Purists ... object that bordeaux is a mongrel because it mixes two, three or four grape varieties" (Hugh Johnson).
adj.
1. Of mixed origin or character: "English has always been a mongrel tongue, a hybrid of arriving idioms" (Mark Abley).
2. Offensive Being a person of mixed background or descent.
3. Being a mongrel organism.
[Middle English, probably from mong, mixture, from Old English gemang; see mag- in Indo-European roots.]
mon·grel′ism n.
mon′grel·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
mongrelism
the state or quality of being a mixed breed. — mongrelization, n. — mongrely, adj.
See also: Dogs -Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.