Etymology

charade

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Today it means: A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole. Full definition →

French charade ← Occitan charrada
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The story

  1. Occitan · derived fromcharrada“conversation; chatter”
  2. French · borrowed fromcharade
  3. English todaycharade

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.