charrette, n. a final, intensive effort to finish a project before a deadline
Thus saith Futility Closet. And I thought, there’s a definition of my state if ever one was. But of course one has to check these things (words) in the OED, which says:
charet | charette, n. Obs. A wheeled vehicle or conveyance.
..que? Only by scrolling to the bottom, there is more:
Draft additions March 2007
Chiefly N. Amer. (orig. Archit.). A period of intense (group) work, typically undertaken in order to meet a deadline.
[Probably originally with reference to the former custom among French architecture students of using a cart to carry their work on the day of an exhibition: see Trésor de la Langue Française s.v. charrette.]
A relatively new coinage, then. I’ll still take it.