arzigogolo

See also: arzigogolò

Italian

Uncertain.

arzigogolo m (plural arzigogoli)

convoluted and contrived turn of words
- 2019, George Orwell, translated by Nicola Gardini, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mondadori:
  Altre volte, invece, si buttavano nel lavoro con smania quasi teatrale, dandosi da fare con la compilazione dei verbali e con lunghi resoconti che non vedevono la fine—perché l'oggetto della presunta discussione si perdeva in astrusi arzigogoli, tra definizioni sofistiche, digressioni esaggerate, e battibecchi—sempre che qualcuno non minacciasse addirittura di appellarsi all'autorità superiore.
  But there were other days when they settled down to their work almost eagerly, making a tremendous show of entering up their minutes and drafting long memoranda which were never finished—when the argument as to what they were supposedly arguing about grew extraordinarily involved and abstruse, with subtle haggling over definitions, enormous digressions, quarrels—threats, even, to appeal to higher authority.
  (literally, “Other times, rather, they threw themselves into work with an almost theatrical frenzy, making themselves busy with the compilation of the minutes and with long reports that did not see an end—because the object of the presumed discussion got lost in abstruse convolutions, between sophisticated definitions, exaggerated digressions, and quarrels—as long as someone did not threaten to even appeal to higher authority.”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

arzigogolo