disjecta membra
/dɪsˌdʒɛktə ˈmɛmbrə
/plural noun
Scattered fragments, especially of written work.We are getting a little tired of this, and the compost heap has been put off limits to Man the Hunter - - they will just have to dispose of their disjecta membra at a sensible distance from the house....
- In a broader sense as well, the disjecta membra of truth must be gathered from far-flung places, in both a temporal and geographical sense.
- We go picking up from year to year and laying side by side the disjecta membra of truth, as he who picked up one by one a row of a hundred stones, and returned with each separately to his basket.
Origin
Latin, alteration of disjecti membra poetae (used by Horace) 'limbs of a dismembered poet'.