Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Paronomasia
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Parˊo-no-ma′si-a
,Noun.
[L., fr. Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to form a word by a slight change;
παρά
beside + [GREEK] to name, fr. ὄνομα
a name.] (Rhet.)
A play upon words; a figure by which the same word is used in different senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other, so as to give antithetical force to the sentence; punning.
Dryden.
Webster 1828 Edition
Paronomasia
PARONOMA'SIA
Definition 2024
paronomasia
paronomasia
English
Noun
paronomasia (plural paronomasias)
- (rhetoric) A pun or play on words
- 1984, Anthony Burgess, Enderby's Dark Lady:
- […] he gloomily regarded his new digital watch, faintly fascinated by the onward march of the square figures which turned one into the other with insolent ease, a kind of numerical paronomasia.
- 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:
- Ev’rywhere but at Norfolk, where talk of Passion far outweighs its Enactment,– indeed, the Sailors’ Paronomasia for that wretched Place, is ‘No-****’.
- 1984, Anthony Burgess, Enderby's Dark Lady:
Translations
a pun or play on words
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Related terms
References
Latin
Etymology
From Ancient Greek παρονομασία (paronomasía, “play upon words which sound alike”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /pa.ro.noˈma.si.a/, [pa.rɔ.nɔˈma.si.a]
Noun
paronomasia f (genitive paronomasiae); first declension
- A figure of speech; pun or play on words which sound alike but have different meanings, paronomasia.
Inflection
First declension.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
nominative | paronomasia | paronomasiae |
genitive | paronomasiae | paronomasiārum |
dative | paronomasiae | paronomasiīs |
accusative | paronomasiam | paronomasiās |
ablative | paronomasiā | paronomasiīs |
vocative | paronomasia | paronomasiae |
Synonyms
- (paronomasia): agnōminātiō
Descendants
- Catalan: paronomàsia
- French: paronomase
- English: paronomasia
- Italian: paronomasia
- Portuguese: paronomásia
- Spanish: paronomasia
References
- paronomasia in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Félix Gaffiot (1934), “paronomasia”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
- paronomasia in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Ryan Stark, Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), 190-95.