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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for February 25, 1999
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rigmarole / rigamarole [n. RIG-muh-rol]
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Rigmarole is either a confused, rambling discourse, or a complicated
set of petty procedures: "His mess hall cleanup instructions were a
bunch of annoying rigmarole."
One theory about the origin of this strange word involves a medieval
game of chance called Ragman. The "ragman roll" was a long roll of
parchment with many written entries. It may have included a list of
characters in which the first character was always named "Ragmon le
bon" (Anglo-Norman for Ragamon the Good, or Ragged Man the Good).
Each entry had a piece of string attached to it. Players of the game
would each select a string, and the roll would be opened to see who
had gotten which entry. These dangling strings certainly made the
whole roll look quite ragged, and "ragged roll" is another possible
origin of our word.
Through the years, lists and catalogs were sometimes called ragman
rolls. In the 16th century, a ragman was a long, rambling discourse.
By the 18th century it had been replaced by rigmarole.
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