Friday, August 27, 2021

Word of the Day -- Rigmarole

 This can be spelled Rigamarole, which is how I pronounce it.  This always seemed to be one of those words that I thought my mother made up.  :-)

Rigmarole -- confused or meaningless talk.

In the Middle Ages, the term Rageman or Ragman referred to a game in which a player randomly selected a string attached to a roll of verses and read the selected verse. The roll was called a Ragman roll after a fictional king purported to be the author of the verses. By the 16th century, ragman and ragman roll were being used figuratively to mean "a list or catalog." Both terms fell out of written use, but ragman roll persisted in speech, and in the 18th century it resurfaced in writing as rigmarole, with the meaning "a succession of confused, meaningless, or foolish statements." In the mid-19th century rigmarole (also spelled rigamarole, reflecting its common pronunciation) acquired the sense referring to a complex and ritualistic procedure.


 From Merriam Webster

 

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