rigmarole
a complex and useless procedure
TRANSLATION
rigmarole = langatmige Geschichte, Brimborium; the whole rigmarole = der ganze Zirkus, das ganze Theater; to tell a long rigmarole = lang und breit erzählen; without a lot of rigmarole = ohne viel Trara
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"Security experts agree that the RIGMAROLE we go through at the airport before boarding a flight is mostly theater. It does little to actually make us safer."
Fighting Terror Five Years Later, by Radley Balko of the Cato Institute
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“The best gradual self-tans are lotions involving less RIGMAROLE than a classic ‘fake tan’ – you simply rub in after showering.”
The Guardian
Did you
know?
rigmarole (also spelled rigamarole)
noun
- A long set of actions or words without any purpose.
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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WORD ORIGIN
The roots of rigmarole most likely go back to a 13th century list of names known as the Ragman Roll.
Edward I of England, also known as Hammer of the Scots, forced members of the Scottish nobility to swear loyalty to him by signing oaths of allegiance (Treueid) that were collected on a number of parchments that together made up what came to be called the Ragman Roll.
By the mid 18th century, a ragman roll (meaning a long roll of parchment full of nonsense) eventually became rigmarole, a long, unnecessarily time-consuming hassle. No doubt a word that has always been useful.
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SYNONYMS
fuss, ado, hoo-ha
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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:
“After Jim forgot his password, you wouldn't believe the RIGMAROLE he had to go through to re-set his account.”
