Questions tagged [puns]
Pun is a play on words or paronomasia.
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"Love Trumps hate"? [closed]
I noticed a slogan in the past presidential election: Love Trumps hate.
At first I thought "Trumps"referred to people who supported Trump, and a "what" was omitted. Only "Love what Trumps hate" made ...
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What is so bad about puns?
Many times I've heard of 'pun intended' or 'pun not intended', which I see as a form of excuse in the English-spoken world. However, I can not wrap my head around why are you constantly excusing/...
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Identifying Literary Devices ~ Synecdoche or Pun?
She would step out of the river, dry in the sun for five minutes and climb back into the car among the shocked eyeballs of her companions.
Is the emphasized phrase an example of a synecdoche or a pun?...
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Does "X is made of people" intend a joking tone?
The essay How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub reads:
It said "people ages 25 to 29 now make up 7.6 percent of all residents, up from 7 percent about a decade ago." Wow, I thought, ...
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Wordplay that thwarts expectation by applying a description to a different object? [duplicate]
Example:
A news show puts an image of donald trump holding up a fish on the screen. The announcer says: "Here's a photo of a slimy, scaly, reptile -- and he's holding a fish, too."
I'm not sure if ...
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Is there a name for a phrase or proverb that multiple possible word-meanings but the same phrase-meaning?
I will start with my example to clarify the odd phrasing of my question.
The die is cast.
Since both 'die' and 'cast' have two meanings, the phrase can be read in two ways:
The die [as in a game ...
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"Keeping up with the car dash icons" - What's the pun?
This tweet asserts that an article by this title contains a pun. However, myself and a few friends, all American, don't get the joke. We assume it's in the title:
Keeping up with the car dash icons
...
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Is there a pun in the name "Crodfoller T. Rhubarb"?
In the 1992 adventure game The Dagger of Amon Ra, the protagonist Laura Bow has the following conversation with her colleague, Crodfoller T. Rhubarb:
Laura: What can you tell me about ...
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Explain a pun please
I think it's the right place to ask. English is not my native, so while I'm able to understand a majority of puns I come acrossб this one puzzles me:
Here's a link to the image.
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Word meaning "has many similar forms"
I'm looking for one word (or a variety of words) that imply ambiguity through synonymous meaning.
"Do you have that in large?"
"No sir, we only have it in big, great, impressive, grand, and
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How or why did "sock" come to mean "punch"?
I see that sock as an article of clothing is derived from Latin soccus for slipper. But, how did it also become a synonym for "a punch" or "to punch"?
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Would you consider "sound idea" (usable as) a pun?
Today I read this comment in the Csound mailing list see full post (emphasis mine):
The interface could be polished, IMO, but the idea is sound [...]
it took me (as a German native speaker) a ...
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What does "cup and Chaucer" mean?
I've recently come across a phrase unknown to me: "cup and Chaucer". What does it mean?
Obviously it is connected with the popularity and influence of Geoffrey Chaucer as the Father of English ...
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What's it called when a compound word can be split up in diff ways to present alt meanings? [duplicate]
For instance, is the pet store PETSMART meant to be Pets Mart, or Pet Smart? That's not actually my question, as I'm pretty sure it's Pet Smart. I'm just asking what it's called when a word either CAN ...
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Is there a technical name for a play on words, such as "FaceCrook"? [duplicate]
Is there a technical name for the play on words where someone would substitute a word for a similar one (or add a common word to the end of one) in order to express their opinion about the subject in ...
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What's the pun in this "Julius Caesar" reference?
In a Blacklist episode, the following conversation takes place, the first and last speaker is the sophisticated Raymond Reddington:
-'Ambition's debt must be paid'.
-Julius Caesar?
-One of my ...
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Does a pun require an explicit reference to the word being punned?
If one is referencing a prior comment in a conversation that uses a term with multiple meanings, using the alternate meaning to make wordplay, would this be considered a pun? (Note: poor software ...
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Pun with "effervescent" and "fiddlesticks"
I read a pun in a children's joke book "Effervescent enough covers on your bed, your fiddlestick out." I know that "fiddlestick out" is "feet will stick out", but what is the "effervescent" punning on?...
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Is there a technical name for this kind of wordplay?
In his book Humorous English, Evan Esar writes,
The blended compound is the fusion of two compounds, with the terminal word of one being the same or similar to the initial word of the other. By ...
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What makes 'St-n-c-tt-r' a 'smirking pun'?
This passage comes from Walter Isaacson's “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.”:
Franklin wrote about a husband who caught his wife in bed with a man
named Stonecutter, tried to cut off the ...
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When Harry met Sally - idiomatic expression
In the 1989 movie "When Harry met Sally" the expression:
When X met Y
Has some other meaning other than the obvious one, or there's a hidden idiomatic expression or a pun?
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"That's bang out of order": pun, anagram or play on words?
There is a one-liner by Tim Vine, a British stand-up comedian, that sees him pull out a card with the word...
BNAG
and exclaim:
That's bang out of order!
The joke is derived from the idiom out ...
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Is the second last "shipping" necessary?
From this question,
This is a ship-shipping ship, shipping shipping ships.
The second to last word shipping seems to be redundant. Is it necessary? Does the sentence still preserve the same ...
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The "preying" mantis female is said to devour its "mail" during copulation. Considering these mistakes unintentional, what would we call them?
Is there such thing as "a written malapropism" or "a slip of the pen"? Or are they just simple spelling mistakes? If they were unintentional, they couldn't be considered puns or a play with words, I ...
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What literary term best describes the following phrase relying on the dual meaning of a word for humorous effect?
"A sheep led astray rarely gets fleeced." The literal act of fleecing of a sheep alludes to the alternative meaning of fleeced - to get swindled, or stripped of money. It doesn't seem to be a pun, ...
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"Foot pound energy Irish appearing" pun?
In translating W. H. Hodgson's The Regeneration of Captain Bully Keller, I came across this sentence, which I suppose must be some kind of pun or joke, but I cannot understand at all.
He knew [...]...
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Word for "extinct", "eradicated" that sounds like "reserved" [closed]
In the Czech language, there's a word play with copyright notice. We say "vyhrazena" for "reserved" (as of rights) and "vyhlazena" as for eradicated (eg. Indians).
I used that pun on my mini site ...
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Two crows being an attempted murder
What is the point of this joke?
— "What do you call two crows on a branch?"
— "Attempted murder."
I've googled it to check if it was a word play but the closest one I've hit was "marauder". ...
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Informal Vocabulary - 'Mank you'
I understand the character is being sarcastic but I don't understand why exactly he says 'mank you'. I looked up the word 'mank' and it doesn't make sense in the context so I suppose 'mank you' is ...
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What English homophone corresponds to 'oise salon'?
This is something of a fringe question. I hope it's considered on-topic.
There have been two books published which purport to be French poetry. The joke is that when read aloud, the poetry sounds, ...
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Origin of "Arachnoleptic fit"
In various websites on the Internet, including http://www.joke-archives.com/dictionaries/dictionarywords.html, I've come across the phrase Arachnoleptic fit.
Apparently all the words in that set (...
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Name of wordplay similar to a pun but where one word is made up
An example would be most clear:
Let's say a company finds a new way to help people communicate. They call their company kamunik8r
Since kamunik8r is a made up word that is meant to sound like '...
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"The man was either mad or both"
In the delightful Fry and Laurie sketch The Letter, several puns are expertly delivered by Stephen Fry, however there is one I don't understand. At 4:45 in the video, he says "The man was either mad, ...
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"Do You Dreams Come True": A clever pun or just bad English?
There's a Japanese band called "Dreams Come True", and on March 21st (2009) they released an album entitled: "Do You Dreams Come True". The title of the album has troubled me ...
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Can Someone Tell me if This Sentence is a Pun?
My friend and I are walking along a nude beach. There is an exposed man directly in front of us. My friend asks me what time it is. My response is "It's 12 o'cock."
Pun or bad joke?
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I don't get this joke. Is it some kind of play on "water, too?"
I don't get this joke. Is it some kind of play on "water, too?"
Transcript:
Two scientists walk into a bar. The first says, "I'll have some H2O." The second says, "I'll have a glass of water too. ...
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What do you call two words that contradict each other in a sentence?
I'm having trouble as to what you call two words that contradict each other. For example, "That was weirdly normal." I think this kind of word play is used in puns and jokes. But I do not know how you ...
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Can you explain the pun "erpigarms"
Here is an extract from a short story:
When Pushkin broke his legs, he started to go about on wheels. His friends used to enjoy teasing Pushkin and grabbing him by his wheels. Pushkin took this ...
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What is the earliest recorded pun in the English language?
So, I'll admit I love a good pun. Done correctly, it is humor for the clever that builds up rather than tears down. Plus, it beats an emetic in the right situation.
That said, I wonder how far back ...
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I can't make heads or tails of this paragraph. It's a complex pun. (Warning: mildly "bad language" and urban lingo.)
Here it is:
It's your brother's MR. T PUPPET, which of course is kept in the apartment with a sense of profound humorous irony. But as usual with your BRO's exploits, this is no ordinary irony, or ...
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How to use "no pun intended"?
The phrase "no pun intended" is often added after someone made a pun or something that could be considered a pun. If this should be taken literally (i.e. it really was unintentional), then I'm not ...
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Make like a banana
In my area, it's not unusual to hear expressions like
I'm going to make like a banana and split.
...make like a tree and leave.
...make like a baby and head out.
...make like a prom ...
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Shakespeare: "Asses are made to bear" [closed]
When Petruchio invites Katherine to sit on his lap, she replies, "Asses are made to bear, and so are you." (Taming of the Shrew Act II, Scene 1.)
The denotation is clear, donkeys (Equus africanus ...
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What is the best way to idiomatically translate this pun into English?
I'm trying to translate some text from Russian to English.
The text discusses both chairs and power over people (it is a fantasy work discussing a Chair of Power for a Lord).
At one point, it has a ...
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"Soft-peddle" vs. "Soft-pedal": eggcorn blunder or sly play on words?
In chat the other day I asked the following question:
"Recently I've been seeing writers using "soft-peddle" in print (in reputable publications, to boot) when I am certain the trope is "soft-...
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What is the correct term for this juxtaposition of words?
He has a soft spot for playing hard ball
Not really a pun, I think. What is the exact term?
And correct me if the title can be made better.
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Literal antonym to "Outspoken"
I'm working on a humorous project in which one character is called the Outspoken Mime.
The adjective "outspoken" means the mime in question is "free, bold, or unreserved in speech." On one side, ...
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Brainstorm: a pun on rainstorm?
The Online Etymology Dictionary unsurprisingly says brainstorm is from the combination of brain and storm.
What I want to know is whether or not this neologism was an intentional pun on the word ...
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A pun or not a pun?
I was talking to someone about puns and she said that it's a play on words,
e.g. "those two pears are a pear of green balls" (sorry about the awful example, I couldn't think of any others on the spot)...
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"After all 7 8 9" joke?
I know that it is very important to be aware of "hidden meanings" of words and phrases. (Especially if the meaning is sexual.) That is why I love Stephen Colbert's "The Word" segments and usually ...
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