When researching this word, I was honestly floored at the narrow use of it in almost every dictionary I could find. In my experience as a reader, the word, menagerie, could mean many different things. It is a word I often find used for all sorts of varieties, from collections of people to odd knickknacks and anything in between. It could be used for a menagerie of collections, and I never batted an eye. I did not expect to find this out today!
Menagerie | məˈnædʒ.ɚ.i: noun: a collection of wild animals that are kept privately or to show to the public
Astounded by the definition I had found, I began to scour the web. There was no way that's all this beautiful word meant! Yet at every turn, I found the same definition in only slightly different wordings. I was happy to be rescued by my favorite dictionary source, if only slightly.
Menagerie | mə-ˈnaj-rē, -ˈna-jə-: noun: a place where animals are kept and trained especially for exhibition; a collection of wild or foreign animals kept especially for exhibition; a varied mixture
Even the book I chose today uses menagerie to describe a group of people, not wild animals. It just goes to show you how much a word will change by its usage before the definition will catch up. After all, a word is often what we make it.
Two days later, with a swift raid on the Govenor of Jos' menagerie completed, a Dragonship and crew secured, a cargo hastily assembled and certain sheepish preparations made, Kallion set off to test his wits against the foremost bastion of the Dragonkind in the southwest quarter of the Island-World.
This is also another lovely example of my wondering as a reader thinking, "Oh, what's going to happen next?" It makes me giddy just reading such an interesting sentence. And with such a menagerie of words, who could blame me? Perhaps tomorrow's word will show me some surprises! Until then, though, happy reading!
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