Disputatio:Brimborium
Translation from the German WP
recensereI'll try to make a rough translation:
In German the word Brimborium is nowadays used for accessory circumstances, superfluous things, useless efforts, brouhaha (I found fuss, however, brouhaha sounds more like Brimborium; Brimborium does not mean anything to a German speaker but it sounds what it means). Brimborium comes from the French word "brimborion" (German Lappalie, English bagatelle ... or even more English: trifle) which goes back to the Middle-French (?) word „breborion“, „briborion“ (magic formula, ...). The origin of this word is assumed in the church-latin (?) vocabulary: Breviarium (short index, excerpt), the collection of catholic hourly prayers.
Origin and history of usage:
In the 16th century a Brimborium was a prayer, which was characterized by murmur and fast, inarticulated talking. Often it was a long prayer in Latin language. The Brimborium was interrupted of passages which were spoken a bit louder and more distinct to signal the other people (priests, monks, ...) the actual position in the text.
And so on ...