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Joined: Nov 2000
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 33 |
Is "Wry sense of humor" the same as "Dry sense of Humor" and in any case what is it (or are they)?
The first I can find nothing on topic. People generally think the second is a form of "sarcasm", but that does not seem right to me.
Carl
I posted this question in the "fun with Words" forum and should have posted it here.
I did receive some excellent and humerous answers there and post it here just to correct my error.
Any additional answers will be welcome and great thanks to all those who have already helped.
Carl
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with Avicenna's binary oppositions in relation to Galen's four temperaments (or humors): hot, cold, wet, moist. Choleric was dry and hot, and melancholic was dry and cold. (A note to those driven mad by the modern use of a word like decimate, seem meekly content with the change of (etymological) meaning of humor from liquidity to tempermentality.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
tsu as a former prescriptivist I can well concur about "decimate." Once upon a time it had a prefectly clear and specific meaning as reduced by a tenth, but then I suppose came to mean weakened, before its present usage as to obliterate
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Double threads, double posts.
Between the definitional and the practical appraoch:
Googling for 'dry' jokes and for 'wry' jokes shows a distinction between 'dry', the dummy lame ones and 'wry', the more intelligent ironic and sarcastic ones.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Double threads, double posts. Well, you all can be sure I won't try to delete one of these! 
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Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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I assumed that wry jokes were associated with other definition of wry - twisted or warped. Dry humour I had always associated with an intellectual rather than slapstick humour. But then I haven't googled for examples.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with Zed. Even if she does spell the last letter of the alphabet wrong.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with Zed. Even if she does spell the last letter of the alphabet wrong. Waddya mean? Looks perfectly fine to me.
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