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The pun, regarded by many as an egregious category of humor, has been known and appreciated by writers for millennia. The ancient Greeks delighted in manipulating their words and they even devised a word, paronomasia, which sounds much like a terrible psychiatric disorder but means to call something by using a slight name-change, for purposes of irony or humor. The Romans expanded the meaning of their word, punctum [a point, as in words such as punctuation or punctual] to signify a point of humor. In Italian, this became puntiglio, meaning a fine point, a delightful play on words, which in turn evolved into the English word, pun, a belabored, disingenuous form of low humor based upon the playful use of words with the same sounds but with disparate meanings.
Some years ago the Wall Street Journal defined these witticisms as follows:
Paronomasia:
Having fun
Is the measure of pleasure
And so the pun
Is the pleasure I treasure.
- STANLEY M. ARONSON, MD, MPH
Copyright Rhode Island Medical Society Jun 2003
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Aww, you're just being punctilious.
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The word pun is, in some obscure way, related to the word punctilious. The argument runs that there was this Latin verb, pungere, which meant "to prick." From that the Italian noun punto meaning "point", was begat, the diminutive of which is puntilglio which means "a fine point." And both pun and punctilious are descended from puntiglio ... or so the argument goes. Get the point?
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You punctured my balloon, Father Steve!
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If the pun is fun as you say
Then why am I left in dismay
When most puns get a punt
Like the ugliest runt
In a litter of conversational play?
A limerick is a kissing cousin to a pun - as ungainly to some as it is endearing in its idiosyncracy to others.
In a "Wordplay" thread with puns apunting punditrivially, I hope a limerick of equally frivolous and innocuous intent will not be considered out of place.
I hope.
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yes, a less than perfect limerick or a less than perfect pun, is perfectly at home in WORDPLAY. (unlike puns (or limericks) scattered through every thread, in ever formum with no regard)
Pun and other word plays are like salt-- language would be blander and tasteless with out them, but when overdone, they become monontinous, and boring..
the same way an UN expected POP of a ballon can startle, and take ones breath away--and scare you beyond reason, but kids relentlessly popping bubbles in bubble wrap packaging becomes just so much noise--a good pun can be a wonderful 'prick' (and endles puns or limericks just makes you think the author is a .....)
Endless puns (unless confined to single thread, were one can indulge, as one might indulge in a salty snack) instead of adding a savor note, become unpleasent.
Ted has started (and heavily contributed to threads) of 'shaggy dogs stories' --i love these threads. but i often stop reading or contributing to once serious threads that have been infected with puns, to the point that a serious discussion of a word or idea no longer possible.
fortunately, this happens less frequently --unfortunately, of late, it hasn't happened at all, as TEd seems to have dropped AWAD from his reading list.
a good pun (one a day is perhaps enough) is fine thing, a steady diet of them doesn't suit me.
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In reply to:
The word pun is, in some obscure way, related to the word punctilious. The argument runs that there was this Latin verb, pungere, which meant "to prick." From that the Italian noun punto meaning "point", was begat, the diminutive of which is puntilglio which means "a fine point." And both pun and punctilious are descended from puntiglio ... or so the argument goes. Get the point?
and thus, to a fine point, is Dr. Aronson mantled.
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yes, a less than perfect limerick or a less than perfect pun, is perfectly at home in WORDPLAY. (unlike puns (or limericks) scattered through every thread, in ever formum with no regard)
Well, I don't come off as entirely incorrigible, Of Troy.
To be truthful, I credit the improvement entirely to you.
You have demonstrated a willingness to put the past behind and you have set an example I will be happy to emulate.
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you are doing it.. (one of my "mantra's" when my children were behaving inappropriately...)
you generally aren't responsible for 'corrupting' serious threads(in what ever forum they happen to arise) with endless puns
(and i have been called to task (via pm and in public) for my failure to open a word processing program and run some of my post through a decent spell check.)
i actually have come to like spell checks, and have learned better from their consistant, low key mindless corrections to spell words that have eluded me for years.
DECISION is now a word in my written vocabulary. (for eons, i never used it. i couldn't spell, and could think of lots of wrong ways, (and could never remember the right way) so the idea that i could "look it up" was meaningless..
dec? or dic? or des? or dis? --for most of my life, i "opted" or make a "choice" or "came down on the side of" or countless other alternates.. (at least in my writing--i never made a decision!)
and i (full foot in mouth mode) once greated an other AWADer with the comment, "you are so nice in person.." (and stopped short before i blurted out that they came across like a school marm/master in some posts)
Actually, the problems was, i didn't always understand, or get their 'tone'--now--i read the post, and hear the sly tone of voice i know is behind the words, and laugh and enjoy the posts immensely.
(but i also failed to 'see' any humor in P.G.Woodhouse's books.. The fault lies in me.. the self same dyslexia that crosses letters, and mangles words in my mind, sometimes impedes my understanding of subtle humor. i often just don't get it. (i miss the humor in many a pun too. and they are so boring if they have to be explained..)
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There was no subtlety in my statement, Of Troy.
I mean what I said. You have put the interests of the Board ahead of the troubles of the past and that is an example worthy of emulation.
So if you see improvement in me, you will understand why.
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