amalgamate

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Do you march to the beat of a different drummer? Discover
the origin of this term in our Dictionary of Allusions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?allusion.htm&6
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The Word of the Day for March 23 is: 

amalgamate   \uh-MAL-guh-mayt\   verb
     : to unite in or as if in an amalgam; especially : to 
merge into a single body

Example sentence:
     The three companies will be amalgamated into a single 
large corporation early next year.

Did you know?
     The noun "amalgam" derives by way of Middle French from 
Medieval Latin "amalgama." It was first used of an alloy of 
mercury with another metal, but it eventually came to describe 
any mixture of elements. By the 18th century, it was also being 
applied figuratively, as in an "amalgam of citizens." The 
verb "amalgamate" was created from "amalgam" and has been in 
use since at least 1617. It too began life referring only to 
compounds of mercury, but it can now be used for formation of 
any compound or combined entity. In particular, it often 
implies the forming of a close union without complete loss of 
individual identities, as in "refugees who were readily 
amalgamated into the community."