Pun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Thou art Peter [Greek Πετρος, Petros], and upon this rock [Greek πετρα, petra] I will build my church."
- (Note that while petra is "rock", the word for "stone" in general is petros, or πετρος.)
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2 Puns 3 See also 4 Quotations |
Etymology
The word pun itself is thought to be originally a contraction of the (now archaic) pundigrion. This latter term is thought to have originated from punctilious, which itself derived from the Italian puntiglio (originally meaning "a fine point"), diminutive of punto, "point", from the Latin punctus, past participle of pungere, "to prick." These etymological sources are reported in the Oxford English Dictionary, which nonetheless labels them "conjecture".Puns
Puns are subdivided into several varieties:
- Homographic, where the pun exploits multiple meanings of essentially the same word. For example: "Being in politics is just like playing golf: you are trapped in one bad lie after another."
- Ideophonic, where words of similar but not identical sound are confused. For example: "A chicken crossing the road is poultry (poetry) in motion."
- Homophonic, in which the words are pronounced identically but are of distinct and separate origin. For example "I've no idea how worms reproduce but you often find them in pairs (pears)"
- Three brothers asked their mother to think of a name for their cattle-ranch. She suggested Focus Ranch, which rather puzzled them until she explained that "Focus means where the sun's rays meet (sons raise meat)."
Many puns are created without the knowledge of the speaker, For example: A TV show once depicted a man who had been impaled by an anchor. When interviewed the surgeon who performed the operation stated the common phrase "He sailed through it". With the pun being that an anchor is used during sailing.
Puns are also found in serious literature. See Alexander Pope, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, and others discussed under word play.
European heraldry contains the technique of canting arms, which can be considered punning.
Official puns are rare, but there are a few:
- K-9, pronounced "canine", for war dogs or police dogs follows the military pattern of designations, such as G-2.
- "Curb your dog", the command on former New York City street signs that combined a requirement to leash a dog with a requirement that dogs be taken to the gutter for their "business". Replaced after pooper-scooper laws were passed.
- The US 4th Infantry Division patch has four Ivy leaves on it, from the Roman numeral IV or 4. Also, the Ivy League Universities in the United States also started as only four Universities, more became members later. (This may be an example of canting arms--see above).
- Although the amphibious military truck called a DUKW may appear to have a punning name, in fact the designation follows standard military vehicle designations from the World War 2 period.
- Tom Swifty
- Spoonerism
- Knock-knock joke
- Shaggy dog story
- Daffynition
- Transpositional pun
- Bilingual pun
See also
Quotations
- "The pun is mightier than the sword." - James Joyce in ???
- "As different as York from Leeds" - James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, a play on "As different as chalk from cheese".
- "A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket." -John Dennis, 1781
- "He that would pun, would pick a pocket" —Alexander Pope, punster
- "Blunt and I made atrocious puns. I believe, indeed, that Miss Blunt herself made a little punkin, as I called it" —Henry James
- "Pun (n.): the lowest form of humour" —Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
- "…but the height of wit" —common rebuttal to the above
- "The eleventh pun always gets a laugh, even if no pun in ten did." —Anon.
