I came across this quote and wondered if the usage of "panoply" is correct:

"What we are doing...is repositioning the ACLU, and for some people, they're rediscovering us on a whole 'panoply' of issues."

These are the kinds of definitions I find for it:

A splendid or striking array: a panoply of colorful flags.

Ceremonial attire with all accessories: a portrait of the general in full panoply.

Something that covers and protects: a porcupine's panoply of quills.

The complete arms and armor of a warrior.

I realize they are referring to an array of issues, but is that how this word was intended?

Here's the OED definition:

panoply (________), n.
[ad. Gr. ________ a complete suit of armour, the full armour of the _______, f. ____ all + ____ pl. arms. Cf. F. panoplie (occurring casually 1551, but adm. in Dict. Acad. 1835). The original Gr. and a latinized form panoplia occur in early use.
1607 Sir J. H. in Harington's Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park 1804) II. 213 As well episcopall as temporall panoplia, or furniture, beseeming both a gentleman, a deane, and a bishop. 1624 Gee Foot out of Snare 24 Let vs_arme our selues with the ________ of God.]

1. A complete suit of armour, the _whole armour' of a soldier
(a) of ancient or
(b) of mediæval times. (In (b) its brightness and splendour are chiefly connoted.)
(a)

1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady iii. iv, Iron._ More_Than all your fury, and the panoply---Prac. Which is at best, but a thin linen armour.
1667 Milton P.L. vi. 760 Hee in Celestial Panoplie all armd.
1750 Johnson Rambler No. 78 _1 Encumbered and oppressed, as he will find himself, with the ancient panoply.
1838 Thirlwall Greece II. 346 Their short spears and daggers were_ill fitted to make an impression on the Spartan panoply.
1881 Jowett Thucyd. I. 243 Three hundred panoplies which were allotted to Demosthenes he brought home with him.

(b)
1813 Scott Trierm. ii. xix, As all around the lists so wide In panoply the champions ride.
1839 Longfellow Coplas de Manrique xxxii, Scarf, and gorgeous panoply, And nodding plume.
1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 516 Armed with all the magnificence of the full panoply of the time.

2. In various fig. and transf. applications:
a. fig. Complete armour for spiritual or mental warfare.
Often with direct allusion to ______________________ _the whole armour of God' in Eph. vi. 11, 13.
1576 Fleming (title) A Panoplie of Epistles, Or, a looking Glasse for the vnlearned.
1650 S. Clarke Eccl. Hist. (1654) i. 4 Patience is the Panoply or whole Armour of the man of God.
1658 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. (1669) 245/1 These words present us with another piece in the Christians panoply.
1784 Cowper Task ii. 345 Armed himself in panoply complete Of heavenly temper.
1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. xxv. 464 Napoleon was armed with the panoply of popular rights.
1884 Tennyson Becket v. ii, Mail'd in the perfect panoply of faith.

b. transf. Any kind of complete defence, covering, or clothing.

c. Any splendid enveloping or surrounding array, material or ideal.

1829 Lytton Devereux iv. iii, What a panoply of smiles the duchess wears to night.
1832 Lander Adv. Niger III. xvii. 57 Another charm_a panoply, for preserving all persons, while bathing, from the fangs of the crocodiles.
1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. viii. 322 Before him lay_the mighty City_gleaming in the sun with its panoply of roofs.
1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. i. 22 His many-coated panoply against King Death.
1867 L. M. Child Romance of Repub. xxxv. 400 Mist_as it grew colder, had settled on the trees_covering every little twig with a panoply of ice.
1872 Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 278 The two lakes, Buttermere and Crummock,_surrounded by a grand panoply of mountains.
1887 Bowen Æneid iii. 517 Both of the Bears, and Orion, in golden panoply dight.

3. A group of pieces of armour arranged as a kind of trophy or ornament.

1890 in Cent. Dict.
1896 Daily News 5 Mar. 7/5 Some Russian shields, serving as panoplies, were added to the French shields.

So, yes, they are using it wrongly.

quote:

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Kalleh: "I realize they are referring to an array of issues, but is that how this word was intended?"
the bear: "Here's the OED definition: ... So, yes, they are using it wrongly."

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I'd have seen nothing wrong with that usage, so you've prodded me to check other sources. dictionary.com approves that usage: "panoply: 1. A splendid or impressive array ..." Example there include

quote:

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To the east, out over the Ocean, the winter sky is a brilliant panoply of stars and comets, beckoning to adventurers, wise and foolish alike, who seek to divine its mysteries.

Those young men and women brought up in Hong Kong ... hardly be expected to accept that in Britain's last colonial redoubt the full panoply of civil liberties they had been taught to cherish should be denied them.

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It seems we have a conflict in the dictionaries. Can anyone take this further?

Is this not a case of language and usage evolving faster than the dictionaries? It touches also on the "prescriptive/descriptive" controversy...

I think we might find similar evolution and discrepancy with the word "palimpsest"

Haberdasher, I had to look up "palimpsest", and therefore I'm not familiar with its evolvement. Can you explain? (While "evolvement" is a word, I am not sure how it is discerned from "evolution".)

Again, not from dictionary -

A palimpsest is a canvas or parchment or whatever that has been used and then re-used, painted over to make a new picture or message.

It evolved to include anything that has layers upon layers. Sagan used it in Cosmos to describe a message-within-a-message-within-a-message. I have fancifully used it to describe a set of puzzles that, when solved, have fragments left behind that must later be separately understood to get a further answer to the next stage of the puzzle, and occasionally there is yet a third layer. (Don't know whether any Mac fans on the board recall an old game called "3-in-Three" that had precisely that structure.) I don't expect my usage to be recognized in any reference work but I don't think Sagan made up his. The allegorical meaning of wheels-within-wheels is an evolution from the original concrete meaning, which dates from when "paper" was a scarce commodity.