Pun or Paronomasia:
The pun or paronomasia is a
form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple
meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical
effect. It is occurs when a single word conveys two meanings. Pun is also
called paronomasia.
Puns are used to create humor and sometimes require a large
vocabulary to understand. Puns have long been used by comedy writers, such as William
Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and George Carlin. The Roman playwright Plautus is
famous for his tendency to make up and change the meaning of words to create
puns in Latin.
Examples of Pun:
“Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man”
(Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet)
Here ‘grave man’ may mean a dead man or a man of grave
disposition. There is another variety of pun where two words of same sounds but
different spellings are used to suggest two different meanings. For example:
“Would that its tone could reach the rich”. Here reach means arrive at and rich means the wealthy.