rigmarole

English

WOTD – 6 January 2007

Alternative forms

• rigamarole

Etymology

From ragman roll (“long list; catalogue”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪɡməɹəʊl/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪɡməɹoʊl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

rigmarole (countable and uncountable, plural rigmaroles)

1. Complex, obsolete procedures; excess steps or activity; needless motion.

   Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days?

2. Nonsense; confused and incoherent talk.
   • (Can we date this quote by De Quincey and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole.

   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, ch VII:

     While you are planting the seed, he cries -- "Drop it, drop it -- cover it up, cover it up -- pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." But this was not corn, and so it was safe from such enemies as he. You may wonder what his rigmarole, his amateur Paganini performances on one string or on twenty, have to do with your planting, and yet prefer it to leached ashes or plaster.

   • 1880, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, A Blighted Life, sxn 4:

     His reply did not even allude to the subject, but was a rigmarole about the weather; as if he had been writing to an idiot, who did not require a rational answer to any question they had asked.

   • 1895, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Valima Letters, ch XIX:

     In comes Mitaiele to Lloyd, and told some rigmarole about Paatalise (the steward's name) wanting to go and see his family in the bush.

   • 1910, A. E. W. Mason, At the Villa Rose, ch XVII:

     "Quite so," said Adèle comfortably. "Now let us be sensible and dine. We can amuse ourselves with mademoiselle's rigmaroles afterwards."

   • 1915, John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps, ch 1:

     He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole.

Translations

complex obsolete procedure

• Finnish: ruljanssi
• German: Theater (de) n, Zirkus (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: trafila (it) f
• Russian: каните́ль (ru) f (kanitélʹ), волоки́та (ru) f (volokíta)

nonsense talk

• Dutch: gezwets (nl)
• German: Geschwätz (de) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: tiritera f, sproloquio (it) m
• Russian: вздор (ru) m (vzdor), брехня́ (ru) f (brexnjá)

Adjective

rigmarole

1. Prolix; tedious.

Further reading

• “rigmarole”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.