Words at Play : English Words from Yiddish
Definition:
: a long involved story or account
About the Word:
For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th century megillah began to be used in a figurative sense to refer to a long or complicated tale. It comes to English from the Yiddish word megile, which is itself from the Hebrew mĕgillāh, meaning 'scroll.'
Example:
"Yesterday I was sore on the whole Megillah down here; to-day you couldn't drive me away mit wild animals." — New York Tribune, 25 Feb. 1914
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