different between rigmarole vs ceremony

English

Alternative forms

• rigamarole

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????m????l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /????m??o?l/

Noun

rigmarole (countable and uncountable, plural rigmaroles)

1. A long and complicated procedure that seems tiresome or pointless.

2. Nonsense; confused and incoherent talk.
   • 1847, Thomas De Quincey, Secret Societies (published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine)

     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

Adjective

rigmarole

1. Prolix; tedious.

Further reading

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

English

Alternative forms

• cæremony, cærimony (both archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English cerymonye, from Latin caerimonia or caeremonia, later often cerimonia (“sacredness, reverence, a sacred rite”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s???m?ni/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s???mo?ni/
• Hyphenation: cer?e?mo?ny

Noun

ceremony (plural ceremonies)

1. A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book Six, Canto 8, pp. 463-464,^[1]

     To whom the Priest with naked armes full net

     Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,

     Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme,

     With other diuelish ceremonies met:

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Numbers 9:3,^[2]

     In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep [the passover] in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

   • 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, London: Macmillan, Volume I, Chapter 1, p. 1,^[3]

     Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

2. An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.

   a graduation ceremony, an opening ceremony

3. (uncountable) A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene 4,^[4]

     […] to feed were best at home;

     From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

     Meeting were bare without it.

   • 1928, W. Somerset Maugham, “Miss King” in Ashenden, New York: Avon, 1943, p. 37,^[5]

     Monsieur Bridet, notwithstanding his costume and his evident harrassment, found in himself the presence of mind to remain the attentive manager, and with ceremony effected the proper introduction.

   • 1959, C. S. Forester, Hunting the Bismarck, London: Michael Joseph,^[6]

     They went into the bars and interrupted the drinking, hustling the men out without ceremony.

4. (uncountable) Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 752-756,^[7]

     Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command

     Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony

     And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim

     A solemn council forthwith to be held

     At Pandemonium […]

   • 1829, Washington Irving, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, Volume II, Chapter 46, p. 254,^[8]

     Immediately after her arrival, the queen rode forth to survey the camp and its environs: wherever she went, she was attended by a splendid retinue; and all the commanders vied with each other, in the pomp and ceremony with which they received her.

5. (obsolete) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 1,^[9]

     […] his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man […]

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene 2,^[10]

     […] Well, believe this,

     No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,

     Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,

     The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,

     Become them with one half so good a grace

     As mercy does.

6. (obsolete) An omen or portent.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 1,^[11]

     For he is superstitious grown of late,

     Quite from the main opinion he held once

     Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2,^[12]

     Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,

     Yet now they fright me.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• ceremony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ceremony at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “ceremony”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• ceremony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Middle English

Noun

ceremony

1. Alternative form of cerymonye