Paronomasia (n) a humorous play on words; a pun
Katy
Paronomasia
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- Grand Panjandrum
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ANDWhat is paronomasia?
Definition
Paronomasia is the use of words that sound similar to other words,
but have different meanings.
Examples (English)
Casting my perils before swains
The end of the plain plane, explained
Source: (Marshall McLuhan and a Braniff Airlines
advertisement, respectively, cited by Corbett 1971 482–48
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/Glossary ... omasia.htm
sounds like it's of Greek origin...yes? no...?
02.01Q: What is a Pun?
A: In Italian, 'puntiglio' means "a fine point," hence a verbal
quibble, and is most likely the source of the English
"punctilious." There developed in late 17th- and early 18th-
century England a short-lived, fanciful word "pundigrion,"
which indeed was a term for what we now know as a pun. Since
snappy monosyllables produced by breaking off pieces of longer
words were all the rage back then, it is widely thought that
this is how and where the word "pun" was created.
A pun is defined by Webster as "the humorous use of a word, or
of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different
meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the
possible applications; a play on words."
In describing the various forms of verbal humor, The New
Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to a pun as "two disparate
strings of thought tied together by an acoustic knot." That
analogy strikes a very pleasant cord!
In France, paronomasia is referred to as jeu de mots.
That has a Nice ring to it, n'est-ce pas?
Katy
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