I'm thinking of something like ceremony or ritual - but without the implication of significance. More like a large collection of tasks in an everyday context like a meeting or a series of medical procedures, say prior to surgery.
I'm thinking of a word that's not necessarily formal, or that the tasks have to be rigidly adhered to in a specific order. It could just be a large number of a tasks say, a shopkeeper may have to do prior to opening a store say.
An example sentence may be say, the chairperson of a meeting saying:
Please people, we need to keep moving if we want to complete the __________ of this meeting
The closest things I can think of are
- long drawn out procedure - (but a single word with the same meaning as this phrase)
Answer
Perhaps you would like rigmarole. From Cambridge Dictionaries:
a long, complicated, or silly process
You have to go through this whole rigmarole before you can register for a course.
It is also sometimes spelled rigamarole (this is closer to my own pronunciation); Merriam-Webster defines both as
2 : a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure
While it can be used for purely necessary procedures when they are sufficiently complex, it still carries a definitely pejorative connotation and seems to most often be used for procedures that the speaker considers somehow unnecessary or ridiculous. I think it would work well for your example:
Please people, we need to keep moving if we want to complete the rig(a)marole of this meeting.
An example of a similar usage found on the world-wide web:
If you feel that the meeting has become a boring rigmarole that you have to go through each week or month, take a look at these tips for injecting energy and effectiveness into the time you spend with your team. ("Top tips for running the most effective facilities meeting possible", Catch22, Jan. 24, 2018)
Comments
Post a Comment