charade

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English

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Etymology

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From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada.[1] As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now usually understood and formed as a back-formation from charades.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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charade (plural charades)

  1. (literature, archaic) A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
    • 1878, "Charade" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. V, p. 398:
      CHARADE, a trifling species of composition, or quasi-literary form of amusement, which may perhaps be best defined as a punning enigma propounded in a series of descriptions. A word is taken of two or more syllables, each forming a distinct word; each of these is described in verse or prose, as aptly and enigmatically as possible; and the same process is applied to the whole word. The neater and briefer the descriptive parts of the problem, the better the charade will be. In selecting words for charades, special attention should be paid to the absolute quality of the syllables composing them, inaccuracy in trifles of this sort depriving them of what little claim to merit they may possess. The brilliant rhythmic trifles of W. Mackworth Praed are well known. Of representative prose charades, the following specimens are perhaps as good as could be selected:—“My first, with the most rooted antipathy to a Frenchman, prides himself, whenever they meet, upon sticking close to his jacket; my second has many virtues, nor is its least that it gives its name to my first; my whole may I never catch!” “My first is company; my second shuns company; my third collects company; and my whole amuses company.” The solutions are Tar-tar and Co-nun-drum.
  2. (uncommon) A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
    Synonyms: acted charade, (obsolete) dumb charade
    • 1911, "Charade" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. V, p. 856:
      ...The most popular form of this amusement is the acted charade, in which the meaning of the different syllables is acted out on the stage, the audience being left to guess each syllable and thus, combining the meaning of all the syllables, the whole word. A brilliant example of the acted charade is described in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
  3. (obsolete) A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
  4. A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.
    Synonyms: farce, sham; see also Thesaurus:fake
    This whole charade is absurd.
    • 1999, Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut (motion picture), spoken by Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise):
      The woman lying dead in the morgue was the woman at the party. Well, Victor, maybe I'm missing something here. You call it fake, a charade… Do you mind telling me what kind of fuckin' charade ends up with somebody turning up dead?

Translations

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Verb

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charade (third-person singular simple present charades, present participle charading, simple past and past participle charaded)

  1. To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.
    • 1977 April 30, David Holland, John Rechy, “The Politics of 'The Sexual Outlaw'”, in Gay Community News, page 10:
      I'm not trying to say: let's try to get away from power rituals because power manifestation is a very important part of sex. It is when it takes the form of charading gay punishment, punishing one of our own in order to allow him a gay contact.
    • 2015, Graeme Fife, Tour de France: The History, The Legend, The Riders:
      She flaps her hands and arms, eyes glaring, head shaking – charading Non, non, NON!
    • 2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties:
      Private, wholesome family time could no longer charade as being either private or wholly wholesome.

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ "charade, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., 2014.
  2. ^ The Chambers Dictionary, 9th Ed., 2003
  3. ^ “charade”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  4. ^ “charade”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “charade” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
  6. ^ “charade”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
  7. ^ “charade”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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Probably from Occitan charrada, from charrar (“to chat”). Compare Italian ciarlare.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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charade f (plural charades)

  1. charade (kind of riddle)
  2. (figurative) something bizarre or hard to understand
    Cet ouvrage est une vraie charade.
    This book is really hard to understand, to follow.
  3. (Louisiana, Cajun) chat, conversation

Descendants

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  • → Catalan: xarada
  • → English: charade
  • → German: Scharade
  • → Italian: sciarada
  • → Portuguese: charada
  • → Russian: шара́да (šaráda)
  • → Spanish: charada

Further reading

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