Assemblage

[a. F. assemblage (Cotgr.), f. assembler: see ASSEMBLE v.¹ and -AGE.]

  1.  A bringing or coming together; a meeting or gathering; the state of being gathered or collected.

1717.  E. Fenton, Ep. Lambard, 164, in Poet. Wks. (1802), 61 (R.).

1768.  Blackstone, Comm., I. I. i. 13. In consequence of this lucky assemblage.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. x. 507. From the first assemblage of the thegns at York.

  2.  The joining or union of two things; conjunction. Obs. exc. as techn. term in Carpentry.

1727–51.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The assemblage of two bones for motion, is called articulation. Ibid. The carpentry of some Indians … where the assemblage is made without either nails or pins.

1728.  Thomson, Spring, 8. With innocence and meditation join’d In soft assemblage.

1849.  Weale, Dict. Terms, Assemblage, in carpentry and joinery, framing, dovetailing, etc.

  3.  A number of persons gathered together; a gathering, concourse. (Less formal than assembly.)

1741–2.  H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 22 (1834), I. 93. It was an assemblage of all ages and nations.

1809.  Pinkney, Trav. France, 48. The assemblage of ladies being very numerous.

1877.  Lytteil, Landmarks, IV. ii. 193. An assemblage of mighty heroes.

  4.  A number of things gathered together; a collection, group, cluster.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xvii. § 15. 106 (T.). All that we amass together in our Thoughts, is positive, and the assemblage of a great number of positive Ideas of Space or Duration.

1748.  Anson, Voy., II. xii. 260. Opposite … is an assemblage of rocks.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Fr. Wines & Pol., i. 13. Of the chesnut woods nothing remained but an assemblage of bare poles.