| Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition | Public Domain via Project Gutenberg |
(a French word, formed by a kind of onomatopoeia, meaning a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends; cf. de bric et de broc, corresponding to our "by hook or by crook"; or by reduplication from brack, refuse), objects of "virtu," a collection of old furniture, china, plate and curiosities.