Etymologically
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charade

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʃəˈɹɑːd/, /ʃəˈɹeɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French charade,[2][3][4][5][6] probably from Occitan charrado (“chat, chatter”),[2][3][4][5][6] from charrá “to chat”,[3][5][6] which is of imitative origin.[3][4][6] The American Heritage Dictionary suggests a link with Italian ciarlare “to chatter”.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A riddle in which each syllable of a word, and then the whole word, is described enigmatically (1776).[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The charade began as verse word-play, a near relation of the rebus.[4][5] It was later acted out in pantomime, giving the parlour game of charades,[6][2] and from that came the sense of an obvious pretence or travesty.[2][5][6]

Timeline

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (often plural) A game in which players act out a word or phrase in pantomime for others to guess.
  2. A word or phrase acted out in this game, or described in a riddle.
  3. An obvious pretense; a travesty.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press