WORD PLAY

Word play

is where words or phrases
are used to have more than one meaning, often with a humorous effect.

These are some examples of famous writers and poets who have used it….

• The importance of being Earnest A Comic play by Oscar Wilde

(Earnest is a name and an adjective)

• “Hurry up and get to the back of the ship” Tom said sternly. Edward Stratemeyer (Tom Swift series of books)

(The stern is the back of a ship)

• “Ben Battle was a soldier bold, And used to war’s alarms: But a cannonball took off his legs, So he laid down his arms.” Thomas Hood

(The phrase “lay down your arms” also means to put your weapons down)

• “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” William Shakespeare

(Mercutio says this in Romeo and Juliet after being stabbed)

Jokes are probably one of the most every day uses of funny word play:

Question: What’s the difference between Prince Charles and a tennis ball?

Answer: One is thrown into the air and the other is heir to the throne.

(This type of word play is called a SPOONERISM, when the two words are swapped around to give a totally different meaning. Notice that the spelling of the words is different: that doesn’t matter, the word play still counts.)

Two peanuts were walking down the street. One was a salted.

This type of word play is called a PUN, where the sentence can have two different meanings (assaulted as in beaten up, and a salted peanut)

Pun’s are probably the most common word play.

Here is another pun example from a church notice board…….

7 days without prayer makes one weak. (7 days makes one week)

Another type of word play is the DOUBLE ENTENDRE,

which is often used by comedians as the sentence can be understood in two different ways, as in the following newspaper headline…..

Stolen Painting Found by Tree (This is intended to mean that the stolen painting has been found at the side of a tree, but could be understood as the tree found the stolen painting)