Recently, puns have become wildly popular. No matter where you go, or who you talk to. There is a good chance you will hear a pun or hear someone mention puns. However, what is a pun? Well, it is rather simple. A pun is an abbreviation for ‘play upon words’. It can also be known as paronomasia; however no one really uses this, but it is an option.
Play upon words
A pun is, again, a play upon words. The intent of a pun is often supposed to be funny or rhetorical. However it is safe to say that it is more commonly known as being a type of joke. Although word plays can have many intentions, the main intent behind a pun is for it to be funny. The joke behind a pun is that you exploit the different meanings of words or the way a word sounds, so it becomes humorous. There are also many different types of puns, it is not necessarily just one thing. Which can make it harder to figure out what a pun is. Nonetheless it is a rather simple concept and there is not much to it.
Examples of puns
First example of a type of pun is homophonic puns. This is when a pun relies on words that sound similar, but actually have different meanings. For example, A bicycle can’t stand on its own, because it is two-tired. The joke here is that the bike has two tires, but instead of saying that, the pun implies that the bike is too tired to stand. Second example of a type of pun is homographic puns. This is when the pun relies on words that are spelled the same way, but the word has two different meanings. For example, a dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering. The joke here is, a litter is a bunch of puppies born at the same time, but littering is also the act of throwing trash on the ground. The dog is, therefore, littering. These are just some examples of puns. There are many others out there, and there are many other types of puns. Word plays have always been a huge part of the English language. Maybe not as jokes, but this is the case in the recent couple of years. So a pun is just a joke.
