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Questions tagged [puns]

Pun is a play on words or paronomasia.

3 votes
1 answer
109 views

Specific term for a "Synonym Phrase"?

Is there a specific term for a pair of phrases where each word technically has the same or similar meaning, but when taken together, has a completely different meaning or implication? I used Synonym ...
Chromane's user avatar
  • 1,645
0 votes
1 answer
51 views

What's the English Technique called when you change a word's word class? [duplicate]

For example: My table is accepting deals, so it's an acceptable. My table is counting, so it's an accountable. I understand these aren't very rewarding wordplay sentences but I want to know the ...
troy's user avatar
  • 1
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Meaning of "our eares are converted into cates"

In Archie Armstrong's Banquet of Jests (1641 edition), there's an account of a punning clergyman: A DIVINE willing to play more with words than to be serious in the expounding of his Text, made his ...
Luke Sawczak's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
128 views

Is there a word for naming something/someone with a common descriptor?

Is there a word for naming something/someone with its common descriptor—for example, calling a baby, Baby, a cat, Cat, a teddy-bear, Teddy? It's not an eponym or an aptronym, though there are elements ...
NMMad's user avatar
  • 19
1 vote
0 answers
48 views

Does wordplay boiled soy/soiled boy have a name? [duplicate]

In Polish, there is a relatively established literary pastime of finding two pairs of words having forms a1a2 b1b2 and b1a2 a1b2, where both pairs are realistic phrases (i.e., they have a sensible ...
Turin's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

Another name for Plants [closed]

Can I write 'blood-lacking living beings' instead of just plainly writing 'plants'? P.S: I have this assignment where creative names are appreciated!
carlie's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

“Why does a Moon-rock taste better than an Earth-rock?” joke meaning [closed]

In the last episode of “The Last of Us” TV show there is the following pun: Why does a Moon-rock taste better than an Earth-rock? Because it's a little meteor. What's the wordplay here? P.S. I've ...
Shtole's user avatar
  • 37
0 votes
2 answers
109 views

What's the pun in this "Will a chick eat a banana" story?

As reported by The Observer, this 2013 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winner in the field of Vile Puns: “The veterinarian had suggested the tasty yellow fruit as a way to cure the undiagnosed lack of ...
Malady's user avatar
  • 807
10 votes
4 answers
8k views

What did Lady Gaga mean when she sang that she's heard a "sine" from above?

In Lady Gaga's song featuring Elton John "Sine From Above", she sang that she has heard a "sine" from the sky. Sine is defined as the very famous mathematical function in Cambridge ...
JKHA's user avatar
  • 221
2 votes
1 answer
42 views

Term for resonance between Author and Title

Often books will have title that is a pun on the author's name or in anonymous works a euonymous nom-de-plume. Sometimes in scholarly works the title unironically reflects an author's aptronymic ...
Palantir's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
76 views

What's the measing of "lousy pun" in this context?

I'm reading a Python (Computer programming language) doc: PEP 3155 – Qualified name for classes and functions. In the Rationale section, it says Python’s introspection facilities have long had poor ...
password636's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
71 views

How to make it clear that there is no pun when using "irrational fear" in the subject of mathematics [closed]

Suppose I am writing to an audience of mathematics teachers, and I want very much to tell them that "I initially had an irrational fear of" a certain subject in mathematics. But in that ...
Daniel Asimov's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
106 views

What is it called to replace a word(s) in a well known idiom/quotes and turn it into a true statement for humor?

Today I was watching a live streamer on Twitch (a veteran gamer in 'Day Z', an open world, zombie survival/shooter video game) and there was a scenario in the game where he came across 2 other players ...
rickrock's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
44 views

Play on words , help needed [closed]

Consider: The loco-motive threw me to the ground. I am trying to highlight the word loco in locomotive because it was out of control and crazy. Meaning @ Merriam-Webster : loco [ slang ] : ...
bob's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

What does "beyond a fact" mean?

What does this mean: Neighbour on the bus or a dear old queen With the possibility the world is packed But the keeper of the secret is not close to max (maybe the name Max) And that's beyond a fact. ...
Saw's user avatar
  • 111

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