omnibus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a bus, especially a large horse-drawn public vehicle of the nineteenth century

   Passengers crowded onto the omnibus bound for the city center.

2. 2
   noun

   a volume or program that collects several works, installments, or related items

   The publisher released an omnibus containing all three novels.

3. 3
   adj

   including or dealing with many different items or matters at once

   Parliament debated an omnibus bill covering transport, housing, and energy.

Borrowed from French voiture omnibus ('carriage for everyone'), using Latin omnibus, the dative plural of omnis ('all'), literally 'for all.' English shortened omnibus to bus in the nineteenth century; the ideas of carrying or including many things produced the collection and adjective senses.

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