A pun (or paronomasia) is a phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect.
A pun may also cause confusion between two senses of the same written or spoken word, due to homophony, homography, homonymy, polysemy, or metaphorical usage. Walter Redfern has said: "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms"[1]. For example, in the phrase, "There is nothing punny about bad puns", the pun takes place in the deliberate confusion of the implied word "funny" by the substitution of the word "punny", a heterophone of "funny". By definition, puns must be deliberate; an involuntary substitution of similar words is called a malapropism.
Puns are a form of word play, and occur in all languages.
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 labels them "conjecture." (There is no creditable documentation for the notion that the word is a backronym for "play upon names"[2]citation needed.)
Usage
Comedy and jokes
Puns are a common source of humor in jokes and comedy shows. They are often used in the punchline of a joke, where they typically give a humorous meaning to a rather perplexing story. These are also known as feghoots. The following example comes from the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (though the punchline is at least five decadescitation needed older):
- Captain Aubrey: "Do you see those two weevils, Doctor?...Which would you choose?"
- Dr. Maturin: "Neither. There's not a scrap of difference between them. They're the same species of Curculio."
- Captain Aubrey: "If you had to choose. If you were forced to make a choice. If there were no other option."
- Dr. Maturin: "Well, then, if you're going to push me. I would choose the right-hand weevil. It has significant advantage in both length and breadth."
- Captain Aubrey: "There, I have you!...Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?"
The last line uses a pun on the stock phrase "the lesser of two evils".
Puns are particularly admired in Britaincitation needed, and forms a core element of the British cult comedy show I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue and in times past My Word. The late Richard Whiteley was famed for his endearingly clumsy use of puns as host of the UK words and numbers game show Countdown. British stand up comedian Tim Vine's act is characterised by rapid delivery of unrelated pun-based jokes. British comedian Dance Drier is also known for his extensive and often many layered puns woven into his stories. In his own words, "A pun is its own reword."
Gag names based on puns (such as calling a character who is always almost late Justin Thyme) can be found in Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, The Eyre Affair, Asterix, Hamlet, The Simpsons, the Carmen Sandiego computer games, and many works of Spider Robinson, including the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series.
Formats for punning
There are numerous pun formats:
Science
The term punning is sometimes used to describe either unintentional muddled thinking or intentional deception where the same word (such as a homographic pun) is used with two subtly different meanings. For example, in statistics the word significant is usually assumed to be a shortened form of "statistically significant", with the associated precisely defined meaning. It is punning to use significant with the meaning "of practical significance" in contexts where "statistically significant" would be plausible interpretation.
Computer science
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Main article: Type punning
A programming technique that subverts or circumvents the type system of a programming language in order to achieve an effect that would be difficult or impossible to achieve within the bounds of the formal language is commonly known as "type punning" in computer science.
Punny quotations
- "The pun is mightier than the word." — original source unknown
- "Pun (n.): the lowest form of humour" —Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
- "Puns are the last refuge of the witless." —another way of stating the above
- "A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself." — Doug Larson
- "…but poetry is much verse." — original source unknown
- "A pun is the lowest form of pastry." — original source unknown
- "If puns are the lowest form of humor, are buns the lowest form of bread?" — Piers Anthony, Author
- "A pun is the shortest distance between two straight lines." — original source unknown
- "A pun is its own reword." — Dance Drier, British comedian
- "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." — Fred Allen
- "The goodness of the true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability." — Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia, 1849
- "'The man', says Johnson, 'that would make / A pun, would pick a pocket!'" ." — Lewis Carroll, "Phantasmagoria", 1869
- "Blunt and I made atrocious puns. I believe, indeed, that Miss Blunt herself made a little punkin, as I called it" —Henry James
- "Immanuel doesn't pun; he Kant." — Oscar Wilde
- "Heralds don't pun; they cant." SCA heralds' expression
- "In the beginning was the pun." — Samuel Beckett, Murphy
- "Congratulations you have one, it's a year's subscription of bad puns" — Kurt Cobain, "Opinion"
More puns
- Paris of Troy was so named because his mother had a considerable amount of gaul and married a Frenchman. — Original Source Unknown.
- "As different as York from Leeds" — James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, a play on "As different as chalk from cheese".
- Max: I like your nurse's uniform, Guy.
Peter: Actually these are O.R. scrubs.
Max: Oh, are they?
—Rushmore
- What happened to the butcher who backed into his meat grinder? He got a little behind in his work.
- Scholar 1[to scholar 2];"Have you read Marx?"
Scholar 2;" Indeed I have my good sir, I believe they are from these cane chairs."
- Person 1: Why exactly do you find ellipses romantic?
Person 2: Because a kiss is a lip tickle.
- Baloo (a bear): "look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities....".
—The Jungle Book (1967 film)
- Do you want some cheese to go with your whine?
- "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass."
—Douglas Adams
- He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends.
See also
References
- ^ Puns, Blackwell, London, 1984
- ^ Revision as of 01:09, 28 January 2007 by 200.44.6.188 (Talk)
Sources
- Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, p. 681. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.
External links
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