paronomasia

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The Word of the Day for July 6 is:

paronomasia   \pair-uh-noh-MAY-zhee-uh\   noun 
     : a play on words : pun 

Example sentence: 
     Humorists claim that Harry Truman offered the delightful paronomasia 
"Missouri loves company" when he invited a friend to join him in Independence, 
Missouri, for a home-cooked meal.

Did you know? 
     Puns (essentially, humorous uses of words to suggest more than one 
interpretation) have their share of critics as well as fans. English 
philosopher-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for example, called puns "the lowest 
form of wit." "Paronomasia," which derives from a Greek verb meaning "to call 
with a slight change of name," can simply be a synonym of "pun." But it can 
also be used, somewhat playfully, to suggest an uncontrollable urge to make 
puns (as if it were a dread disease, rather than harmless word play). For 
example, in the July 6, 1980 _New York Times_, William Safire announced, "an 
epidemic of paronomasia has raced around the world." And on January 1, 1989, 
Jerry Kobrin of _The Orange County Register_ resolved to seek treatment "for a 
near-terminal case of paronomasia."





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