I found the words ‘eclectic bunch’ in the following sentence of a New York Times (July 29, 2011) article reporting increase in foraging in city parks, which is titled ‘Enjoy Park Greenery, City Says, but Not as Salad.’
Foraging used to be a quirky niche, filled most notably by “Wildman” Steve Brill, who for years has led foraging tours in the Northeast, including in Central Park. But foragers today are an eclectic bunch, including downtown hipsters, recent immigrants, vegans and people who do not believe in paying for food.
As the word ‘eclectic bunch’ was new to me, I checked its meaning on Google and found a flood of examples of its usages including the name of a musical band. From those quotes and examples, I deduced that ‘eclectic bunch’ simply means ‘hodgepodge’ — a group of different types of constituents. Is this right?
However, I wonder why this ‘eclectic’ expression like ‘eclectic bunch’ became so ubiquitously used as I saw in Google. Is it because the word ‘eclectic bunch’ sounds trendy?
Best Answer
This is not a catch phrase, Oishi-san, it's simply an adjective and a noun put together.
As it's used there, it just means today's foragers include people from many different walks of life.