Ruck

Word of the Day for Friday, March 23, 2012

ruck \ruhk\, noun:

1. A large number or quantity; mass.
2. The great mass of undistinguished or inferior persons or things.

Innis steered Jessica through a ruck of large, bearded men in dungarees and greasy sweaters who looked at her like she might be the floor show.
-- Paul Bryers, The Prayer of the Bone

A ruck of charts, clipboards, cuttlefish-flavoured peanut snacks, containers of the barley water and orange pop the enlisted brought on watch, binoculars, and struggling men stirred at the base of the cliff.
-- David Poyer, Korea Strait

The ruck of the men were lower down than our two heroes, and there were others far away to the left, and others, again, who had been at the end of the gorse, and were now behind.
-- Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn

Ruck comes from an early Icelandic word ruka or ruke which meant "a heap or a stack."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/