Crambo

Crambo

Crambo is an old rhyming game which, according to Strutt,[1] was played as early as the fourteenth century under the name of the ABC of Aristotle. It is also known as Capping the rhyme. The name may also be used to describe a doggerel poem which exhausts the possible rhymes with a particular word.[2]

In the days of the Stuarts it was very popular, and is frequently mentioned in the writings of the time. Thus in William Congreve's play of 1695 Love for Love, i. 1, contains the passage,

"Get the Maids to Crambo in an Evening, and learn the knack of Rhyming."[2]

Contents

Etymology

The name comes from the Latin crambe and Greek krambē, meaning cabbage (as in crambe repetita, literally meaning re-stewed cabbage). Hence the players started with a rhyme and then "re-stewed" it.[3]

Play

In the early versions of the game up to the eighteenth century, teams would vie with each other to find and express a rhyme for a word or line presented by the opposing player or team. Someone would offer the first rhyme often poking fun at a dignitary, the subsequent lines or couplets would then have to rhyme with this. The verse would be sung to a popular tune of the day and the game collapsed when a player was unable to use his wit to come up with a suitable rhyming word.[4]

Crambo in the nineteenth century became a word game in which one player would think of a word and tell the others what it rhymes with. The others do not name the actual word they guess, but describe its meaning. Thus one might say, "I know a word that rhymes with bird." A second asks, "Is it ridiculous?" "No, it is not absurd." "Is it a part of speech?" "No, it is not a word." This proceeds until the right word is guessed.[4]

In Dumb Crambo the guessers, instead of trying to name the rhyme being given them as a clue, express its meaning by acting the word without speaking in the manner of charades.[2]

Notable players

One of Crambo's more famous devotees, Robert Burns (1759–1796), wrote: "Amaist as soon as I could spell, / I to the crambo-jingle fell." [4]

James Boswell (1740–1795) was famous for his skill at the game. One Crambo poem from Boswell is rhymed around "the Laird of Craigubble," a fellow Crambo player. One of the stanzas goes:

"To render you bright with choice liquor at night / Take Punch made of rum that is double / And I give you this charge be your Bowl full & large / To content the good Laird of Craigubble."

Each stanza in the poem rhymes abcb, and every stanza ends with "the Laird of Craigubble."[4]

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a frequent Dumb Crambo player with his wife and daughters in their North London home.[5]

References

  1. ^ Joseph Strutt 1830
  2. ^ a b c 1911 Britannica
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  4. ^ a b c d Holley in Yale Findings
  5. ^ Francis Ween's biography of Karl Marx, Chapter 12 page 371

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Crambo — Cram bo ( b[ o]), n. [Cf. {Cramp}, a., difficult.] 1. A game in which one person gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme. [1913 Webster] I saw in one corner . . . a cluster of men and women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • crambo — s. m. [Entomologia] Inseto lepidóptero pirálide …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • crambo — [kram′bō΄] n. [< ? L crambe, cabbage (as in crambe repetita, lit., cabbage repeatedly served, hence repeated story, old tale) < Gr krambē] an old game in which players find rhymes for words or lines of verse given by each other …   English World dictionary

  • crambo — /kram boh/, n., pl. cramboes. 1. a game in which one person or side must find a rhyme to a word or a line of verse given by another. 2. inferior rhyme. [1600 10; earlier crambe < L crambe repetita phrase used by Juvenal in reference to… …   Universalium

  • crambo —   n. game in which a rhyme has to be found to a given word.    ♦ dumb crambo, form of crambo in which rhyming words are acted in dumb show …   Dictionary of difficult words

  • crambo clink — noun or crambo jingle Scotland : doggerel, crambo …   Useful english dictionary

  • crambo-jingle — cramˈboclink or crambo jinˈgle noun (Burns) Rhyming doggerel • • • Main Entry: ↑crambo …   Useful english dictionary

  • crambo jingle — noun see crambo clink …   Useful english dictionary

  • crambo — noun (plural cramboes) Etymology: alteration of earlier crambe, from Latin, cabbage, from Greek krambē Date: 1660 a game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to be matched in rhyme by other players …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • crambo — noun A guessing game in which players guess words that rhyme with a clue word, seeking a word that is kept secret or concealed …   Wiktionary

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