chamade

/ʃəˈmɑːd/

Etymology

Borrowed from French chamade, from Italian or Portuguese, from Latin clamare.

Why this word is great

CHAMADE — [Noun] A signal sounded on a drum or trumpet inviting a parley. From the French chamade, tracing back through Portuguese chamada ("call"), from chamar ("to call"), from Latin clamare ("to shout"). Unlike "truce" (which denotes the pause itself) or "fanfare" (which heralds triumph or spectacle), chamade is the sound of war pausing to consider its own cost. It is the drumbeat muffled by distance, the trumpet’s wavering note across a smoke-choked field, the silence that follows, heavy with the unspoken question: Will they answer? A moment when violence hesitates, and the possibility of mercy flickers, brief as a candle in the wind.

noun

  1. A signal sounded on a drum or trumpet inviting a parley.“But when the chamade was beat, and the corporal helped my uncle up it, and followed with the colours in his hand, to fix them upon the ramparts.”