Words worth: repertoire

repertoire \REP-er-twar\ noun

1 : a list or supply of dramas, operas, pieces, or parts that a company or person is prepared to perform

*2 : a supply of skills or devices possessed by a person

The Late Latin noun "repertorium," meaning "list," has given us two words that can be used to speak of the broad range of things that someone or something can do. One is "repertory," perhaps most commonly known as a word for a company that presents several different plays, operas, or other works at one theater, or the theater where such works are performed.

"Repertoire," which comes from "repertorium" via French, once meant the same thing as "repertory" but later came to refer to the range of skills that a person has under his or her belt, such as the different pitches a baseball pitcher can throw or the particular dishes that are a chef’s specialty.