crambo

English

Etymology

• Perhaps related to cramp (“difficult”) (adjective).
• Perhaps from Latin crambe repetita (“cabbage served up again”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æmbəʊ

Noun

crambo (countable and uncountable, plural crambos or cramboes)

1. (uncountable) A guessing game in which players guess words that rhyme with a clue word, seeking a word that is kept secret or concealed.
   • 1711 May 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, May 12, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 63; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     I saw in one corner […] a cluster of men and women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I heard several double rhymes […] which raised a great deal of mirth.

     The spelling has been modernized.

2. (countable) A word rhyming with another word.
   • 1720, Jonathan Swift, To Stella, on transcribing his Poems:

     His similes in order set
     And every crambo he could get.

Derived terms

• crambo-clink
• crambo-jingle
• dumb crambo

 

Anagrams

• Cambro-, cambro, comarb