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Rigmarole vs Ceremony - What's the difference?

rigmarole | ceremony |

As nouns the difference between rigmarole and ceremony

is that rigmarole is complex, obsolete procedures; excess steps or activity; needless motion while ceremony is a ritual with religious significance.

rigmarole

English

Alternative forms

* rigamarole

Noun

  • Complex, obsolete procedures; excess steps or activity; needless motion.
    • Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days?
  • Nonsense; confused and incoherent talk.
    • 1895' — ''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.'' — , ch XIX
  • * De Quincey
    • Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole .

    Quotations

    ;confused and incoherent talk * 1854 — (Henry David Thoreau), , 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), , 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. * 1910 — , , ch XVII * 1915 — (John Buchan), , ch 1 *: He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole .

    ceremony

    English

    (wikipedia ceremony)

    Alternative forms

    * (both archaic)

    Noun

    (ceremonies)
  • A ritual with religious significance.
  • An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.
  • A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks.
  • (obsolete) An omen or portent.
  • * 1599 , , II. i. 197:
    • For he is superstitious grown of late, / Quite from the main opinion he held once / Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.
  • * 1599 , , II. ii. 14:
    • Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, / Yet now they fright me.

    Derived terms

    * ceremonial * ceremonially * ceremonialness * ceremonious * ceremoniously * ceremoniousness * ramp ceremony

    External links

    * * * *