Miscellaneous Entries.
rigmarole (= a senselessly cumbersome, hassle-filled procedure) is the standard spelling. *"Rigamarole" is a variant spelling that is less than half as common in print. Despite its spelling, “rigmarole” is usually pronounced /RIG-uh-muh-rohl/, though the dictionaries record /RIG-muh-rohl/.
rill; *rille. “Rill” = (1) a brook or stream; or (2) a long, narrow trench or valley on the moon’s surface. *"Rille" is a variant spelling for sense 2, but there is little reason to promote it.
riposte; *ripost. “Riposte” /ri-POHST/ (= a sharp comeback or swift retort) is the standard spelling. *"Ripost" is a variant.
risible (= laughable, ludicrous) is so spelled — not *"risable." It rhymes with “visible.”
risqué (= verging on indecency) is occasionally — in the speech of the marginally literate — misused for “risky.” The feminine “risquée” doesn’t properly exist in English.
rodomontade; *rhodomontade. This word, meaning “boastful talk” and pronounced /rod-uh-muhn-TAYD/, is preferably spelled “rodomontade.”
roister; *royster. “Roister” (= [1] to brag and swagger; or [2] to engage in bumptious merrymaking) is the standard spelling. *"Royster" is a variant.
*Invariably inferior forms.
For information about the Language-Change Index, click here.
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Quotation of the Day: “You can’t know a book until you come to the end of it, and then all the rest must be modified to fit that.” Maxwell E. Perkins, “A Letter to an Author” (1947), in A Reader for Writers 200, 210 (William Targ ed., 1951).
