▪ I. charivari, n.
(ˌʃɑːrɪˈvɑːrɪ, ˌʃæ-, -ˈværɪ)
[a. F. charivari (14th c. in Littré), Pic. caribari, in med.L. c(h)arivarium, charavaria, etc.; of unknown origin; various conjectures are mentioned by Littré.]
A serenade of ‘rough music’, with kettles, pans, tea-trays, and the like, used in France, in mockery and derision of incongruous or unpopular marriages, and of unpopular persons generally; hence a confused, discordant medley of sounds; a babel of noise.
| 1735 tr. P. Bayle's Dict. II. 104 A Charivary, or Mock Music, given to a Woman that was married again immediately after the Death of her Husband. 1848 C. Brontë J. Eyre xvii. (D.) We..played a charivari with the ruler and desk, the fender and fire-irons. 1854 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims Wks. (Bohn) III. 173 We..are all drawn into the charivari; we chide, lament, cavil, and recriminate. 1863 Kingsley Water-b. i, Never was heard..such a noise, row, hubbub, babel, shindy, hullabaloo, stramash, charivari, and total contempt of dignity and order. |
¶ From its original sense, taken as the name of a satirical journal in Paris; in imitation of which:
| 1841 (title) Punch, or the London Charivari. |
▪ II. chariˈvari, v. U.S.
[f. the n.]
trans. To greet or serenade with a charivari. Cf. shivaree v.
| 1890 in Amer. Speech XXI. 176 The four came to town..for the purpose of charivaring a friend recently married. 1900 Smithwick Evol. State 72 The boys went..to charivari them. |