Meaning

noun a collection containing a variety of sorts of things

noun an assortment of foods starting with herring or smoked eel or salmon etc with bread and butter; then cheeses and eggs and pickled vegetables and aspics; finally hot foods; served as a buffet meal

originBorrowed from Swedish smörgåsbord (“buffet with many small dishes; smorgasbord”), from smörgås (“sandwich”) + bord (“table”). Smörgås is from Swedish smör (“butter”) + gås (“goose”), a reference to pieces of butter which float to the surface of milk when churned.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0