disjecta membra

/dɪsˈdʒɛk.tə ˈmɛm.bɹə/

disjecta membra noun: scattered fragments, especially of written work.

Noun

disjecta membra pl (plural only)

(plural, plural-only) Scattered fragments, especially of written work.
- […]though the whole construction be taken to pieces, are still the disjecta membra, with which the work of renovation must be begun.1805 January 26, B., “To the Right Honourable William Windham: Upon Our Military Force, Particularly That of the Volunteers”, in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume VII, number 6, London...
- A thoughtful spirit drifting upon this tide in a large city like Paris cannot but often think of this, and shiver with the feeling that beneath and all around are scattered thickly, if invisibly, putrescent corpses and whitening skeletons. But sometimes strange things do come to the...1876 December 20, Moise, “Our Paris Letter. […]”, in The Inter Ocean, volume V, number 253, Chicago, Ill., published 13 January 1877, page 9

It is a battlefield of books, and the literary productions of many centuries had their share in the battle, and their disjecta membra are now strewn over its area.1897 August 3, Solomon Schechter, “A Hoard of Hebrew MSS [=Manuscripts] .”, in The Times, page 13:
I knew more about “disjecta membra” than a butcher or a furniture mover.1927 October 27, C. B. Pyper, “About Pictures”, in The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, volume XXXVIII, number 257, Winnipeg, Man., page 4:
Notes are strewn about like disjecta membra;1959, Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music, the University of New Hampshire, page 21:
Disjecta membra scattered everywhere, unrecognisable, through my oeuvre: complex, trivial, true.1999, Areté, page 84:

Alteration of Horace’s Latin phrase disjecti membra poetae (“limbs of a dismembered poet”).

What does disjecta membra mean?: Disjecta membra means scattered fragments, especially of written work.
How do you use disjecta membra in a sentence?: It is a battlefield of books, and the literary productions of many centuries had their share in the battle, and their disjecta membra are now strewn over its area.
What part of speech is disjecta membra?: Disjecta membra is a noun.
How do you pronounce disjecta membra?: Disjecta membra is pronounced /dɪsˈdʒɛk.tə ˈmɛm.bɹə/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: disjecta membra (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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