pun2 (pun)

[See pun2, v.] An expre ion in which the use of a word in two different applications, or the use of two different words pronounced alike or nearly alike, presents an odd or ludicrous idea; a play on words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but differ in meaning; a kind of verbal quibble. A pun can be no more engraven than it can be translated. When the word is construed into its idea, the double meaning vanishes. Add is on , Ancient Medals, ii. A better pun on this word [gay] was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and Rich Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, V. 92, note. gay. = Syn. Pun, Paronomasia, A onance. Pun and paro nomasia are often confounded, but are in strictne distinct in form and effect. A pun is a play upon two senses of the same word or sound, and its effect is to excite a sense of the ludicrous: as, They went and told the sexton, and The sexton toll'd the bell. Hood, Sally Brown. Even when taken into sober discourse, the pun has an effect at least of oddity: as, For Suffolk's duke, may he be suffocate . Shak., 2 Hen. VI., i. 1. 124. IMG:content-1302.png:[blocks in formation] As in these examples, it is most likely to be used where the words thus near in sound are far apart in meaning. It is very common in the original languages of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, as in Isa. v. 7. An at tempt to imitate it may be found in Mat. xxi. 41, revised version. A onance is the bare fact of resemblance of sound, being generally accidental, and in the majority of cases disagreeable to the ear: as, unfold old truths, our power, if of, is as, and Andrew drew, the then condition. For the technical meaning of a onance, see def. 2 under that word.