clerihew means A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
clerihew is pronounced /ˈklɛɹɨˌhjuː/.
Why “clerihew” is a great word
CLERIHEW — [Noun] A humorous, pseudo-biographical quatrain with an AABB rhyme scheme, typically opening with its subject's name. Named after the English humorist and novelist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), who invented the form; first attested in 1928. Unlike the limerick—a metrically strict, five-line vehicle for bawdy anecdote—or the epigram—a polished, universal shaft of wit—the clerihew is a casually erudite biographical sketch, its four lines ambling in a prose-like rhythm. It is a deflating footnote, a whispered classroom doodle, and a historical pratfall: Sir Humphry Davy abominating gravy, a philosopher's system undone by a mundane inconvenience, a stately name forced into a comically pedestrian rhyme. A gentle, democratic mockery of consequence, reminding us that even the loftiest figures must submit to the trivial tyranny of a rhyme.
Etymology
Named after English humourist and novelist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956), who invented the rhyme.
noun
- A humorous rhyme of four lines with the rhyming scheme AABB, usually regarding a person mentioned in the first line.“CLERIHEW CONTEST. CNV announces a clerihew contest, with the best examples to be published in this newsletter.”