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rigmarole - 5 dictionary results

rig⋅ma⋅role

  [rig-muh-rohl]
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–noun
1. an elaborate or complicated procedure: to go through the rigmarole of a formal dinner.
2. confused, incoherent, foolish, or meaningless talk.
Also, rigamarole.

Origin:
1730–40; alter. of ragman roll
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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rig·ma·role   (rĭg'mə-rōl')   
n.  
  1. Confused, rambling, or incoherent discourse; nonsense.
  2. A complicated, petty set of procedures.

[Alteration of obsolete ragman roll, catalog, from Middle English ragmane rolle, scroll used in Ragman, a game of chance : perhaps from Anglo-Norman Ragemon le bon, Ragemon the Good, title of a set of verses about a character of this name + Middle English rolle, list (from Old French, from Latin rotula, wheel; see roll).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Rigmarole

Rig"ma*role\, n. [For ragman roll. See Ragman's roll.] A succession of confused or nonsensical statements; foolish talk; nonsense. [Colloq.]

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

Rigmarole

Rig"ma*role\, a. Consisting of rigmarole; frovolous; nonsensical; foolish.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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rigmarole 
1736, "a long, rambling discourse," from an altered, Kentish colloquial survival of ragman roll "long list or catalogue" (1523), in M.E. a long roll of verses descriptive of personal characters, used in a medieval game of chance called Rageman, perhaps from Anglo-Fr. Ragemon le bon "Ragemon the good," which was the heading on one set of the verses, referring to a character by that name. Sense transferred to "foolish activity or commotion" c.1955, but known orally from 1930s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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