1670s, from French salmigondis (16c.), originally "seasoned salt meats" (compare French salmis "salted meats"), from Middle French salmigondin (16c.), of uncertain origin; Watkins derives it from Latin sal "salt" + condire "to season, flavor." Probably related to or influenced by Old French salemine "hodgepodge of meats or fish cooked in wine," which was borrowed in Middle English as salomene (early 14c.). Figurative sense of "mixture of various ingredients" is from 1761; it was the title of Washington Irving's satirical publication (1807-08). In dialect, salmon-gundy, solomon-gundy..