# Which is preferred, rigmarole or rigamarole? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522 "2009-07-28T05:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/1 "2009-07-28T05:04:54Z")
I’ve always heard people say “rig-a-ma-role”. However, when checking on [onelook.com](http://onelook.com), “rigmarole” (a spelling I’d never seen) has 25+ entries, while “rigamarole” only has 15. Is one more proper than the other? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/2 "2009-07-28T06:11:11Z")
I believe “rigmarole” is the only correct spelling, and pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/3 "2009-07-28T06:23:35Z")
The OED has _rigmarole_ going back to 1736, and no entry at all for _rigamarole_. nor any suggestion that there is a variant pronunciation which inserts an extra syllable. Google offers c. 287,000 hits for _rigmarole_, and c. 90,600 for _rigamarole_, so the latter form is used, but it seems to be the minority usage. There is a board game in the US called _Rigamarole_. My wild speculation woudl be that the manufacturers of this game inserted an extra letter in _rigmarole_ so that they could trademark the word thus coined, and it may be that the promotion of the board game has led to the spread of _rigamarole_ generally. The fact that the OED doesn’t note it suggests that it may be (a) a US usage, and (b) a recent one. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/4 "2009-07-28T06:28:35Z")
My copy of the \*OED \*only lists “rigmarole” as the spelling and only gives that pronunciation without the inserted vowel. My copy of the _American Heritage Dictionary_ gives “rigamarole” as a possible alternate spelling with the inserted vowel as being the pronunciation for that spelling. I’d say that you should assume that “rigmarole” is the standard spelling and pronunciation. It appears that “rigamarole” is slowly becoming more common as the pronunciation and even more slowly as the spelling. This is a common sort of pronunciation change, where a vowel is inserted to make the word easier to pronounce. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/5 "2009-07-28T06:29:53Z")
I suggest you avoid the confusion, and use “boondoggle” instead. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/6 "2009-07-28T06:55:28Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I believe “rigmarole” is the only correct spelling, and pronunciation. I tend to disagree. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/7 "2009-07-28T12:14:35Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > I tend to disagree. You would. I put “rigamarole” in the same category as “sherbert.” ---
**Author:** ![jasperbittergrab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@jasperbittergrab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasperbittergrab)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/8 "2015-11-17T11:06:34Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > You would. > > I put “rigamarole” in the same category as “sherbert.” And “orangutang!” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/9 "2015-11-17T15:10:13Z")
There was too much rigamarole involved when the athalete and the orangutang were eating sherbert. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/10 "2015-11-17T15:26:24Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I believe “rigmarole” is the only correct spelling, and pronunciation. I would say the opposite on both counts. I’ve never heard it pronounced or spelled that way, always “rigamarole.” In the end, it doesn’t really matter, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/11 "2015-11-17T15:32:17Z")
Where do you live? _Rigamarole_ sounds like the sort of pronunciation somebody attempting a comedic Italian accident might use. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/12 "2015-11-17T16:12:27Z")
Or a musical theatre librettist looking to make a line scan. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/13 "2015-11-17T22:12:16Z")
New England/New York area checking in. Not that it’s a word often heard, but the rig_a_marole pronunciation is what I am used to. It’s particularly apparent when I spell it; I tend to add the extra ‘a’ and then have to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/14 "2015-11-18T05:39:35Z")
I too live the Northeastern US and until reading this post I’d never, ever heard it referred to as **‘rig-marole’** even once in my entire life. Why would anyone pronounce it like that? It’s cumbersome and unnatural to do nearly a full stop between the hard ‘g’ and the ‘m’ consonant sounds without inserting a vowel sound. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/15 "2015-11-18T06:31:26Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I too live the Northeastern US and until reading this post I’d never, ever heard it referred to as **‘rig-marole’** even once in my entire life. Why would anyone pronounce it like that? It’s cumbersome and unnatural to do nearly a full stop between the hard ‘g’ and the ‘m’ consonant sounds without inserting a vowel sound. It’s spelled and pronounced that way because, apparently, it’s derived from _ragman roll_, a parlour game popular in the fourteenth century. A number of verses or mottoes of a personal character were written on separate sheets of paper, each with a string or cord attached. The sheets were then rolled up with the strings dangling out of one end. Each player took one of the strings, extracted the sheet of paper which was attached and then read the verse or motto aloud. Whatever he read was taken to apply to him. I know, it sounds hilarious. But I suppose it helped to pass the time until you were carried off by the black death. Strictly speaking, the game was “ragman”, and the “ragman roll” was the bunch of rolled up papers with the strings hanging out. By the sixteenth century “ragman roll” came to mean any long or rambling discourse, especially a convoluted and improbable excuse or explanation. By the eighteenth century “ragman roll” had become “rigmarole”. In the nineteenth century the meaning expanded from long rambling discourse to include long, involved and tedious procedures and processes. The “rig **a** marole” spelling and pronunciation is, I think, an exclusively US variant, and I had never heard it in Ireland, the UK or Australia, or been aware of it until this thread. I hypothesised back in 2009 that it was coined to create a trade-markable word to use as the name of a board game. Another possibility is that it simply evolved in the US as an easier-to-articulate variant, and was then adopted as the name of the board game. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/16 "2015-11-18T06:42:31Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I too live the Northeastern US and until reading this post I’d never, ever heard it referred to as **‘rig-marole’** even once in my entire life. Why would anyone pronounce it like that? It’s cumbersome and unnatural to do nearly a full stop between the hard ‘g’ and the ‘m’ consonant sounds without inserting a vowel sound. There’s nothing unnatural about it. There’s a clear syllable break. It’s no harder than saying “big man.” Still, I nearly always hear and see “rigamarole,” too. I assumed people leaving out the a were just doing the same type of elision as done in chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/17 "2015-11-18T10:09:24Z")
As I said six years ago, this is a common sort of pronunciation change. It’s epenthesis (or more specifically anaptyxis). A sound is added to a word to make it easier to pronounce: > **[Epenthesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis)** > > In phonology, epenthesis (/ɪˈpɛnθəsɪs, ɛ-/; Greek ἐπένθεσις) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (prothesis) or in the ending syllable (paragoge) or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word epenthesis comes from epi- "in addition to" and en- "in" and thesis "putting". Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence for the addition of a consonant, and for the addition of a vowel, svarabhakti (in Sanskrit) or alternatively anapty... > > **[Silly little syllables keep the lol in haplology](https://www.michiganradio.org/arts-culture/2014-12-07/silly-little-syllables-keep-the-lol-in-haplology)** > > Are we becoming too lazy to pronounce all of the syllables in a word? University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan says speech economy is nothing… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/18 "2015-11-18T21:51:46Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > New England/New York area checking in. Not that it’s a word often heard, but the rig_a_marole pronunciation is what I am used to. It’s particularly apparent when I spell it; I tend to add the extra ‘a’ and then have to look it up. > [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I too live the Northeastern US and until reading this post I’d never, ever heard it referred to as **‘rig-marole’** even once in my entire life. Why would anyone pronounce it like that? It’s cumbersome and unnatural to do nearly a full stop between the hard ‘g’ and the ‘m’ consonant sounds without inserting a vowel sound. This and this. I read the OP and thought, well, since rigmarole isn’t even a word, the answer is rigamarole. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/19 "2015-11-20T02:15:07Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I too live the Northeastern US and until reading this post I’d never, ever heard it referred to as **‘rig-marole’** even once in my entire life. Why would anyone pronounce it like that? It’s cumbersome and unnatural to do nearly a full stop between the hard ‘g’ and the ‘m’ consonant sounds without inserting a vowel sound. I agree, I never heard anything but “rigamarole”, but if the older spelling was the original, your post is a perfect explanation of why it changed. I grew up in Philadelphia FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522/20 "2015-11-20T02:51:06Z")
Evidently _rigmarole_ is only “cumbersome and unnatural” in the variety of English spoken in the US, and perhaps particularly the north-eastern US, since posters from there not only use _rigamarole_ but say they have never heard the other usage. In most of the rest of the Anglophone world, however, it’s _rigmarole_ which is standard, and _rigamarole_ which either sounds contrived or is simply never heard. Which raise the question; what is the particular characteristic of English as spoken in [north-eastern] US which makes _rigmarole_ awkward? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-preferred-rigmarole-or-rigamarole/504522.md?page=2)