Word(s) of the Week: Imbroglio and Embroil
By Cathy Ryan
We’ve got another twofer for you, with this week’s words of the week: imbroglio and embroil. Tip: the “g” in imbroglio is silent. These words have the same way-back origin.
I came across imbroglio while I was reading this article in the New York Times about a wild problem, a hilarious debacle, an imbroglio, regarding 20 tons of spilled tofu in Missouri that really started to stink because it was left there for three weeks. Imbroglio is one of those words that I felt I kind of knew, but suspected I didn’t know the full story. I was thinking it was a bit of a dust up – a disagreement. But it’s more of a scandalous, embarrassing, or confused situation. This stinky tofu situation, where no one would clean it up until the insurance company promised they’d pay for the work, qualifies as an imbroglio.
While researching imbroglio (don’t forget the “g” is silent, like in tagliatelle and famiglia – the Italian are consistent), I learned that imbroglio and embroil have the same origin. They both come from the Middle French word embrouiller, which meant to jumble, or to confuse. Via French, embrouiller became the English word embroil, whereas the Italians turned embrouiller into inbrogliare and then imbroglio, which was adopted into English:
When I’m researching a word, I’m always curious if it appears in any books that I have on my Kindle. Both embroil and imbroglio appear in the biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, which I haven’t read yet.
Embroil also appears in Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann. This is the sequel to Three Bags Full, the book that the recent movie “Sheep Detectives” is based on. I have read Three Bags Full, but have not yet read Big Bad Wool. I do recommend Three Bags Full, although, (and this will sound a bit unbelievable), the sheep do sometimes wax philosophic at times, in a way that I found a bit boring. But most of the time they’re romping around in a hilarious way, trying to solve a murder mystery. I recommend the movie as well, though it is a simplified version of the book (as is often the case). Those sheep have a knack for getting embroiled in imbroglios!
You can read about previous Words of the Week here.