CARWHICHET

from World Wide Words:

 CARWHICHET

Let me riddle you a riddle: "How far is it from the first of July to London Bridge?" Stumped for an answer? Then try this one: "If a bushel of apples cost ten shillings, how long will it take for an oyster to eat its way through a barrel of soap?"

These two perplexing queries were provided by John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1865, as examples to illustrate the word carwhichet, or carriwitchet, as he preferred to spell it. His version was as good as anybody's, since the term has never been used enough to settle to an agreed form and everybody who has used it has made their own guess about the spelling.

A carwhichet (let's stick with that version) is a hoaxing question or conundrum, sometimes a mere pun or bit of verbal byplay. Here is one of its more ancient appearances:

A Quibbler is a Jugler of Words, that shows Tricks with them, to make them appear what they were not meant for, and serve two Senses at once. ... He dances on a Rope of Sand, does the Somerset, Strapado, and half-strapado with Words, plays at all manner of Games with Clinches, Carwickets and Quibbles, and talks under-Leg.

The Character of a Quibbler, from the Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr Samuel Butler, Volume 2. Though published in 1759, this was actually written about 1680. A clinch (or clench) and a quibble were other names for the games with words that Butler's quibbler was so expert at. Quibble only later took on its modern sense of a petty or legalistic objection. Somerset is an old version of somersault. Under-legremains mysterious.

Nobody knows where the word comes from, however you spell it. A link with Frenchcolifichet has been cautiously suggested. In that language, it refers to a small object of little value, a bauble, knick-knack or trinket. This had developed from the oldcoeffichet for a hair accessory (from coeff, a coif) through confusion in part withcolle, glue, source of French and English collage.

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Readers provided many more examples of nonsense queries from their own experiences. From Canada, Marc Slingerland e-mailed, "I'm very glad to have the word carwhichet to describe the kind of zany non-sequiturs that briefly flourished in our area during my adolescence!   

A representative example: 'As I was biking across my backyard in my canoe, the left wheel fell off. How many pancakes does it take to shingle a doghouse?" To which the correct answer was, "It depends if a snake has armpits." I've thought of these as surrealist jokes, but carwhichet is a nice compact term that I shall try to remember."

"Carwhichet reminded me of a line my father would use on me as a child," Loren Crispell wrote. In an attempt to divert my boredom on long trips, he used to ask, 'When is a duck?' Answer: 'The higher he flies the much.'" 

Pádraig McCarthy and Lesley Shaw remember another duck-related riddle: "Q: What's the difference between a duck? A: One of its legs is both the same." 

Ken Shaw added, "When I was in school in the late 1950s, the most familiar carwhichet was: 'If a chicken and-a-half-can lay an egg-and-a-half in a day-and-a-half, how long will it take a grasshopper with a wooden leg to kick his way through a dill pickle?'"