(shĭvˌə-rēˈ, shĭvˈə-rēˌ)
noun Midwestern & Western U.S. A noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. Also called regionally charivari, belling, horning, serenade.
Regional Note: Shivaree is the most common American regional form of
charivari, a French word meaning “a noisy mock serenade for newlyweds” and probably deriving in turn from a Late Latin word meaning “headache.” The term, most likely borrowed from French traders and settlers along the Mississippi River, was well established in the United States by 1805; an account dating from that year describes a shivaree in New Orleans:
“The house is mobbed by thousands of the people of the town, vociferating and shouting with loud acclaim᠁ [M]any [are] in disguises and masks; and all have some kind of discordant and noisy music, such as old kettles, and shovels, and tongs᠁ All civil authority and rule seems laid aside” (John F. Watson). The word
shivaree is especially common along and west of the Mississippi River. Its use thus forms a dialect boundary running north-south, dividing western usage from eastern. This is unusual in that most dialect boundaries run east-west, dividing the country into northern and southern dialect regions. Some regional equivalents are
belling, used in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan;
horning, from upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and western New England; and
serenade, a term used chiefly in the South Atlantic states.
