Charade is a polysemantic word

Charada - what does it mean? This foreign word must have been heard by almost every person. And many understand that it is connected with riddles, games. But since today's young people choose mainly computer games among all the games, what it is - a charade, they are not likely to know for certain. To fill this gap, you should familiarize yourself with the contents of the article.

What is said in the dictionary?

If you turn to the dictionary for clarification of the meaning, you can see that the charade is a multi-valued word.

Game of charades

The first version of the interpretation is a riddle, which involves guessing a word that contains several components. Moreover, each part is an independent word.

Examples of use:

  • Young people had fun in summer: during the day they took long walks to the forest, to the river, gathering in a big company, and in the evening they liked to play charades.
  • Sergei learned that, it turns out, you can play charades alone, for this the mysterious word is described in a short poem, first in parts, and then in its entirety.

Figuratively

Charade like a secret

The dictionary offers the second option, which is used in figurative meaning in colloquial speech. In this case, the charade is a mystery, something incomprehensible, mysterious.

Examples:

  • The investigator had the impression that the offender offered to play charades with him, more and more confusing the tracks.
  • The girl invited Andrei to stop playing charades with her and to tell everything honestly as a spirit, because from this their relationship, in her opinion, would only benefit.

Linguistic term

Charade as a written language

In linguistics, “charade” refers to a species of Indian abugida. The latter, in turn, is a form of syllabic writing. In it, syllables having the same consonant letter, but different vowels, are indicated by the forms of one sign, the base, but in a slightly modified form. Or there is some additional icon nearby. Moreover, one of these vowels is basic, and the syllable in which it is contained is designated as the original form without any modifications.

Abigud came from the Brahmi script, which is one of the oldest forms of Indian syllabic writing. This is the ancestor of virtually all the indigenous scripts of South as well as Southeast Asia, except those based on the Latin alphabet or Chinese characters. In the Middle Ages, this writing was forgotten, but at the end of the 18th century it was decrypted.

Usage example:

Charade stood out from the Gupta letter around the 8th century. n e., and currently it is used mainly by Indian Buddhists who write in Sanskrit, as well as in one of the religious communities of Kashmir.

Computer game character

Charade is also one of the characters in the Soul series of games. In Japanese it is pronounced as "Saredo". This creature, which was created from the fragments of a sword called Soul Edge. As such, he does not have intelligence, and all his actions are based on instincts. Scanning the minds of his opponents, he imitates weapons and fighting styles. In one version of the game, he was the final boss (the strongest opponent of the hero) and after a certain period of time can be unlocked.

Example:

In the new version of the Soul game, almost all the characters of the previous part are present, with a few exceptions, but for the first time others appear, such as, for example, Kassandra, Rafael, Necrid, Charada.

Etymology

The word charade originates in the Provencal language. Its other names are Occitan, Limousin, the language of the troubadours, and Romance. It is the language of the indigenous population of Occitania (south of France), as well as a number of regions of Italy, Spain and partly Monaco bordering it.

"Provencal language" is the oldest name, which was formed from the name of the Roman province, in Latin Provincia (Romana), now - Provence - one of the historical areas where the Occitan dialect is common.

This language has the verb charrá, meaning "speak, chat", from which the noun charrado came from, which translates as "conversation, conversation, chatter." Further in French, the noun charade was formed as onomatopoeia, which came into the Russian language by direct borrowing.

Briefly about other meanings

To get a complete idea that this is a charade, it is worth learning other meanings of the word:

  • The name of the American film, shot in 1963.
  • Oscar-winning Canadian cartoon (1984).
  • Japanese car manufactured by the company "Daihatsu" called "Daihatsu-charade."
  • One of the names of the race track passing through the city of Clermont-Ferrand in France.

Essence of the game

To conclude the study of the question that this is a charade, it would be advisable to consider what the essence of the puzzle game is. It is a division of a word into syllables so that each of the syllables acts as a separate word with its own meaning.

Here are some examples of this separation:

  • mountains + melon = pride;
  • fak + tour = invoice;
  • goods + seek = comrades;
  • pipe + fool = troubadour;
  • cat + summer = cutlet.

The riddle is that each part of the word is described first, and then the entire word is completely described. As a rule, it turns out a funny, but at the same time not entirely simple puzzle.

Medieval troubadours

So, the word “troubadour” can be encrypted as: a wind instrument designed for stupid women or a medieval singer. And the word “cutlet” can be represented in the form: a purring mammal with a mustache in the hot season or chopped meat fried with a piece.

There is also a variant of the game, such as “live charades,” when words are made up not by means of a description, but by demonstrating certain movements depicting their essence.


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