shivaree (charivari) /SHIV-ə-ree/. noun. Originally, a mock serenade using pots, pans and whatever was at hand to disapprove of a marriage or wedding. More generally, a cacophany of sound, a din, a discordant medley. Shivaree is a corruption of the French charivari, from Greek karebaria (headache), derived from kare (head) + barys (heavy).
“She turned on all the horrors of the ‘Battle of Prague’, that venerable shivaree, and waded chin deep in the blood of the slain.” (Mark Twain)
“The staple figure in novels is the man of aplomb, who sits, among the young aspirants and desperates, quite sure and compact, and, never sharing their affections or debilities, hurls his word like a bullet when occasion requires, knows his way and carries his points. […] But we for the most part are all drawn into the charivari; we chide, lament, cavil and recriminate.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
“So it went: the succession of film fragments on the tube, the progressive removal of clothing that seemed to bring her no nearer nudity, the boozing, the tireless shivaree of voices and guitars from out by the pool.” (Thomas Pynchon)
“How can a body be made from the word?–language, a
shivaree of transparence-jigsaw-glass immensity”
(Robin Blaser)
“…wondering if she’d forgotten scooping you out of it, whispering, Shh shh, shh, going tiptoe barefoot past the La-Z-Boy, the shivaree of snore and static, the stink of whiskey and cigarettes.” (David Bradley)
“But that following Saturday was the night it first appeared all our fortunes were changing. There was a big crowd of miners and they were feeling the season, their carryings-on was not just a bit of fun, it was liken to a shivaree.” (E.L. Doctorow)