Charivari, an imitative word, having its origin in slang, describing a mock serenade of discordant music with such accompaniments as tin kettles, shouting, whistling, groaning, hissing, and screaming, and the like.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.
Cha*ri`va*ri" (?), n. [F.]
A mock serenade of discordant noises, made with kettles, tin horns, etc., designed to annoy and insult.
It was at first performed before the house of any person of advanced age who married a second time.
© Webster 1913.
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