Advocabulary: Sundry

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What can you buy at a sundry shop?

sundry

Oh, all kinds of stuff. Sundry means “various, diverse, miscellaneous” and often occurs in the (rather redundant) expression “various and sundry.” Dictionary.com gives another expression, “all and sundry,” which means “everyone, both collectively and individually.” A sundry shop would be a good place to get a Snapple, a newspaper, and a tin of shoeshine; the idea of sundries includes the idea that the items are of nominal value.

A related word is notions. A notion is usually a vague idea (“I had a notion about that, but I hadn’t really thought it through”), but can also refer to “small articles, as buttons, thread, ribbon, and other personal items, esp. such items displayed together for sale, as in a department store.”