an Italian word, now often Englished as "pastiche," formed from pasta, paste, for a composition in music, painting or other arts, made up of selections from fragments or imitations of the work of other artists, a medley or pot-pourri. The term has also been applied to a form of musical composition in which selections from various operas, &c., are pieced together to form a consecutive whole, special librettos being sometimes written for them.