Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “charade” come from?

Charade comes from French charade, from Occitan charrado, derived from the Occitan verb charrar, ultimately tracing to Proto-Indo-European -tós via Latin -atus and Proto-Italic -ātos.

charade (English): A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer...

Definitions

  1. A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer...

Ancestry of “charade”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchcharadecharade; something bizarre or hard to understand;...
2Occitancharradaconversation; chatter
3Occitancharrarto chat; to waffle; to chatter
Every word from Occitan charrar →