{"id":4956,"date":"2011-04-29T09:56:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2011-04-29T09:56:32","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:56:32","slug":"calembour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=4956","title":{"rendered":"Calembour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calembour<\/strong> \/kal\u0251\u0303bu\u0280\/, nm<\/em> – Jeu de mots fond\u00e9 sur la diff\u00e9rence de sens entre des mots qui se prononcent de la m\u00eame fa\u00e7on (ex. : personnalit\u00e9 et personne alit\u00e9e) (de Larousse<\/em>).<\/p>\n

This is a French word I learnt last night that means pun or, “a play on words based on the difference in meaning between words that are pronounced the same”. The example above doesn’t work as a pun in English – personnalit\u00e9<\/em> = personality and personne alit\u00e9e<\/em> = a bedridden person. <\/p>\n

Calembour<\/strong> first appears in a letter by Denis Diderot from 1768. According to Webster’s Online Dictionary<\/a>, it comes from a character known as “der Pfaff vom Kahlenberg<\/em><\/a>” (the Jester of Kahlenberg), a.k.a. Wigand von Theben, in a German story called Tyll Eulenspiegel<\/em> (Owl’s Looking-glass). The Jester of Kahlenberg, or Calembourg in French, spent time in Paris during the reign of Louis XV and was known for his puns and blunders.<\/p>\n

The English word pun<\/strong> (\/p\u028cn\/, \/p\u0259n\/) is of uncertain origin. The OED<\/a> suggests that it possibly comes from punctilio (a minute detail of action or conduct). Other possible origins of pun, discussed in The Pun Also Rises<\/em><\/a> by John Pollack, include: <\/p>\n

– pundit, from the Sanskrit \u092a\u0923\u094d\u0921\u093f\u0924 (pa\u1e47\u1e0dita – “a learned Hindu versed in Sanskrit”), although the Sanskrit word for pun is \u0936\u094d\u0932\u0947\u0937 (\u015ble\u1e63a)
\n– pun<\/em>, Old English for “to pound”
\n– \u092a\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u094d (pu\u1e47\u1e0d), a Sanskrit word meaning “to heap up together”
\n– punctilio<\/em>, Latin for “fine point”
\n– pun, an Anglo-Indian word meaning “a stake played for a price; a sum” – named after a type of Indian coin.<\/p>\n

There’s also discussing of the etymology of pun on the OUPblog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pun Also Rises<\/em><\/a> is an interesting and pun-filled history of puns and punning which suggests that they have been around perhaps since language first emerged, and that the dismissive attitude and groans which they often evoke are a relatively recent development. The author argues that by forming links between unlikely things, puns can stimulate creative thinking and mental agility, and that they can also help children to develop their linguistic skills – knock knock jokes (invented by William Shakespeare), are perennial favourites for this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calembour \/kal\u0251\u0303bu\u0280\/, nm – Jeu de mots fond\u00e9 sur la diff\u00e9rence de sens entre des mots qui se prononcent de la m\u00eame fa\u00e7on (ex. : personnalit\u00e9 et personne alit\u00e9e) (de Larousse). This is a French word I learnt last night that means pun or, “a play on words based on the difference in meaning between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}