Etymology

clerihew

cle·ri·hew
C3L1E1R1I1H4E1W4

Today it means: A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line. Full definition →

First used 1920s
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Named after English humourist and novelist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), who invented the rhyme.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1920s A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.