Charades – From Cryptic Riddle to Pantomime
Most of us are familiar with the silly party game, where you act out a word or phrase until your team either guesses it or gives up. Guessing games have been a staple among parlor games for longer than people had parlors. But while the exact time that Charades came into being is questionable, what just about everyone agrees on is that it started in France, and it looked nothing like what we play today.
Whether it began in the 16th or the 18th century, by 1791, the original form of Charades was already popular enough in England that collections of them were being published.
The One-Word Riddle
Per the Etymology Dictionary, the word “charade” first appears in English writings around 1776. Like many English words, it’s simply the French word charade snatched up and put into use. The French word appears to have evolved from either charrado (“long talk, chatter”), or charrar (“to chatter, gossip”). Either way, notice that it’s about speaking, which is forbidden in the game we know today.
The first people to play charades were generally the well-educated aristocratic class – the type of people you’d imagine “retiring to the smoking room” after dinner. They would talk about the politics of the day, of course. At the same time, the scientific world was making great leaps forward – this was the period that saw the invention of the first electrical capacitor, the progress toward modern chemistry, the concept of germ theory, and so much more. Naturally, these topics were often discussed in these circles, and intellectual prowess was particularly admired.
As such, many parlor games of the time had an element of mental challenge. So many of these types of games involved guessing something, but charades also challenged the person asking the question.
My first is a fowl of good eating,
Though not at all times of the year:
My second, without any treating,
Is found in the hedge that is near.My whole is a fruit, that is seen
To flourish in gardens, near bowers;
‘Tis red, it is yellow, or green;
And you like it much better than flowers.
Goose-berry
Charades has always been a game about guessing a word, usually broken down into syllables. One player presents the word, while the other players team up to guess it. In its original form, the person presenting the challenge did so as a riddle, giving a cryptic clue for each part of a compound word, or for a word that sounded similar to the syllable in question. Puns were quite common. In this manner, early charades were closer to clues in modern Cryptic Crosswords.
“My first,” “my second,” etcetera meant the syllable in question, and if there was an additional clue for the entire word, one would include “my whole” or “united” while giving it. To make it even more difficult for the presenter, giving the clues in poetic form was ideal.
Spreading and Evolving
Charades was exceptionally well-liked – it spread rapidly from France to England, where writers such as Jane Austen helped to popularize it. For example, in her novel Emma, Chapter 9 includes several charades recited by the characters, such as the following verse:
My first doth affliction denote,
Which my second is destin’d to feel;
And my whole is the best antidote
That affliction to soften and heal.
Here, we see a homophone, as the answer to the first syllable is “woe,” which is felt by the answer to the second – “man.” Therefore, the whole word is “woman.”
19th century England saw a plethora of books and periodicals compiling conundrums (riddles whose answer was usually a pun), enigmas (a more formal riddle, such those used by Tolkien in The Hobbit), charades, and other verbal puzzles. Sometimes you’d see new variations on the concept, such as “Numbered Charades,” which were like verbal anagrams using individual letters from the mystery word. For example:
I am a word of six letters, signifying to run, like tears.
My 1, 4, 5,6 is a join; my 2, 4, 5 you drink; my 3, 5, 2, 1 are “all alive;” my 4, 5, 2 all do; my 5, 3, 4 is a verb; and my 6, 5, 3 is to spoil. The initials give my whole, and the finals, transposed, is the same word in a masterful sense.
For this one, the answer is “STREAM.” Here’s how the construction works. Each letter is numbered according to its position within the word. So “My 1, 4, 5, 6” becomes SEAM, and “my 4, 5, 2” is EAT, for example.
“The initials” and “the finals” refer to the first and last letters of the smaller riddle words. As before, “my whole” is the answer word, and then “transposed” means it’s the entire word with the letters rearranged.
You can find quite a few books with these sorts of examples, thanks to sites like the Internet Archive. The example above was in the explanation text for Numbered Charades (page 48) in a book titled Guess Me. The one thing to keep in mind when looking at books from the 19th century is that English is a living language, and you may run into obscure words that are no longer in common use, or words that have changed their meaning since that time.
The Play’s the Thing – Acting Charades
I was unable to find any details about how this became a thing. Perhaps there were out-of-work playwrights everywhere throwing dinner parties. For this version of the game, the mystery word was acted out by a group of players. Sometimes there was dialogue, sometimes purely pantomime, but it was actually structured like a play. A three-syllable word would consist of four “acts” – one for each syllable, plus one more for the entire word.
You can find an example of two such charades in the novel Vanity Fair, Chapter XVI. If you would like to jump to the beginning of the portion containing the acting charades, the subject comes up on page 187. From what I could see, the presenters were in full costume, with stage dressing, lines, and defined characters, and the audience was meant to guess after the play.
Personally, I had trouble figuring out how the audience was supposed to determine the individual syllables or the word itself from the scenes presented, but that is most likely due to a lack of lived experience compared to the readers of the time.
Regardless of my individual difficulty with this version of the game, Acting Charades persisted in popularity, and even became the dominant form around the time of World War I, so much so that this was the point that Acting Charades began to simply be called “Charades.” Gradually, the plays became shorter, with less dialogue, until it was pure pantomime, as we know it today.
How to Play Charades
Modern charades no longer use groups of people acting out the clue together. Today, it always has a single person silently gesturing at the people guessing. This can be played as either a team game, or every player for themselves. There is always a time limit – shorter times usually mean complex clues, while longer times are often used if a presenter is trying to rapidly run through several simpler clues. If the presenter makes any vocal sound, their turn immediately ends.
- As a team game, players divide themselves up into two or more groups. Each team has their members take turns acting out a clue for them. If the presenter’s team is unable to guess the clue within a time limit, the opposing team(s) sometimes have one chance to guess the right answer to steal a point. Alternatively, you may allow a longer time limit, with one or multiple teams trying to guess as many clues as they can before time runs out. The winning team is the one with the most points after a predetermined number of rounds.
- When playing as individuals, all players take turns presenting for the entire group. You can award points to either the first person to guess correctly, the presenter for getting someone to guess right within a certain time limit, or both. Again, players agree beforehand whether to present one clue at a time, or a lightning round with multiple clues within a longer time limit. Again, the winner is the person with the most points.
- In both cases, you might also have a separate award for the best presenter.
Restrictions on Presentation
As with any game, the biggest rule is to have fun. However, modern charades has a few rules that the person acting out the current clue MUST follow, or forfeit their turn.
- BE SILENT – you may not speak or make any vocalizations, such as an airplane noise or barking like a dog.
- Direct language is not permitted – you may not mouth out words, use sign language, or draw letters in the air.
- If you must point, only point at yourself – you may not point at any objects in the room. If the clue has “chair” in it, you must act out a chair, not point at one. However, you may point at anything on your person, such as your hair, using a “sounds like” gesture. Pointing at another player is only allowed when you’re making a gesture regarding their guess, such as if they’re on the right track.
- Homophones are allowed – it’s okay if the word isn’t spelled the same, or has a different meaning. Someone can guess the word “bee” and be correct for “be.”
Charades Clues
“Clues” is the term for what each presenter is expected to act out. A clue might be one or more words. Some groups like to write down a bunch of possible clues on slips of paper, then mix them up for a presenter to draw. The presenter generally gets a moment to think about the first clue before the other players start the timer. In less-formal games, the presenter might think up a clue on their own, usually with agreed-upon restrictions on the complexity. Most clues fall into one of the following categories (with a specific gesture given at the beginning to indicate which one):
- Person: This category tends to assume gender, by bowing for a man, or curtsying for a woman. Your group may modify this method in whatever way you find appropriate.
- Place: Draw a circle in the air with one finger, then point to it, as if pointing to a dot on a map.
- Thing: Lift one hand, palm up and partially curled, as though presenting a small object.
- Event: Lift one arm and point to your wrist as if you’re wearing a watch.
- Movie Title: Hold one fist up as a “lens,” while cranking with the other, as though it were an old-fashioned camera.
- TV Show: Draw a rectangle in the air to outline a TV screen.
- Book Title: Hold out your hands pressed flat together, then unfold them as though opening a book.
- Song Title: Hold a fist up to your open mouth, as though singing into a microphone.
- Common Quote or Phrase: Raise both hands with index and middle fingers extended, then bend them, making “air quotes.”
Miming the Word
Once the timer starts, the pressure’s on! First, establish the category, as explained above. Next, since many of the categories allows for multi-word clues, the second thing will be to hold up a number of fingers indicating how many words are in the clue. Once the guessers say the correct number of words, you may move on to the next step, which is usually to indicate with your fingers which word you’re working on, how many syllables it has, and then which syllable you’re about to mime.
For numbers indicating how many words, or which word you’re on, simply hold your hand(s) upright with the appropriate number of fingers raised. For syllables, lift your other arm, and and place the fingers indicating the count face-down on top of your forearm.
Of course, you’re not required to act out a single syllable at a time. For example, you may sometimes move your arms in a large circle to show you intend to act out an entire multi-syllable word or phrase – the “whole concept.”
Imagine this for a quote such as “I’m king of the world!” The presenter could try making the air quotes gesture, followed by showing five fingers for five words, then sweep their arms in a circle for the whole thing. Finally, stand still, leaning forward with their chin up, eyes closed, and arms spread wide. If nobody guesses from that, and they have an idea for “Titanic,” they might try cranking a movie camera to indicate a title, see anyone says Titanic, then go back to the phrase gesture.
Other Common Gestures
- On the Right Track: Nod and make a “come on” gesture toward yourself with one hand. This is used when a guesser is close, but not quite correct.
- On the Nose: When someone calls out exactly the right thing, but you’re not quite at the entire answer yet, point to your nose and at the person who made the correct guess. This means they got the word or syllable you’re working on correct, and you can move on to the next part of your act.
- Sounds Like: Tug on one earlobe, or cup one hand to your ear. This most often means you’re about to act out something that rhymes with the correct answer. Sometimes people use it for other things, such as a similar, but not rhyming work, or even onomatopoeia. You could gesture “sounds like,” then mime sipping soup to get someone to guess “slurp,” for example.
- Short Word: Pinch your fingers together for short words that are difficult to mime, such as of, for, the, and, but, and so on.
- Longer or Shorter Version: For a longer version of the word, mime stretching something. For shorter, mime a karate chop into your other hand. It might be easier to get people to guess “jogging” instead of “jog,” or “love” instead of “lovely.” Once they get the longer or shorter version, you can encourage guesses for variations.
- Past Tense: Raise a hand level with one shoulder and move it backward over your shoulder. This tells the guessers to modify a word to its past tense form, such as “slept” instead of “sleep.”
- Be More Specific: Open one hand, and tap the other fist into it. This is a tricky one, used when a guess is a little too wide in scope, and you’re trying to encourage the guessers to narrow it down to something within it, such as a specific piece of equipment within “playground.”
- Back Up: Point at the guesser while taking a step backwards. Use this if they had been on the right track and moved to an incorrect set of guesses.
Parting Thoughts
There’s a certain charm in the kinds of games commonly played at family gatherings. Charades brings up warm memories of flapping an arm in front of my face like an elephant in the process of trying to mime the first syllable of “punctual.” Creative thinking and acting silly helps build social bonds, and maybe a few problem solving skills.
I was fascinated when I stumbled across Guess Me., and learned that this goofy party game actually began as an intellectual exercise by the upper crust of society, with nobody making silly faces at all! If you want to stretch your writing skills, try to write a classic charade, and then invite some friends over to experience a classic parlor game.
My first is a hoodlum, who learned to rock out;
My second a soft mother, white, short, and stout;
Together my third makes up everything;
And to be found my whole, the timing’s the thing.
Punk – ewe – all : Punctual
