Commonly known as punning and plays on words, paronomasia is the humourous or fanciful use of the similarity between different words and/or the different senses of the same word. Sir Ernest Gowers, in Fowler's Modern English Usage, suggests that perhaps the best known pun is one that requires a basic knowledge of Greek to achieve its effect. Saint Matthew, in Chapter XVI, Verse 18, has Christ say, "Thou are Peter (Greek Petros) and upon this rock (Greek petra) I will build my church."

Puns are otherwise found at every turn, and in spite of our generally condescending view of this light-hearted form of speech, turn up with disconcerting (for some) frequency in the works of many of our most highly venerated authors, including Shakespeare. As Gowers puts it, "Puns are good, bad, and indifferent, and only those who lack the wit to make them are unaware of the fact."

If the forerunners and shock-troops were such greats as Shakespeare, Boswell and Calverley, then todays battalions are nonetheless nobly led by their lineal descendents, John Crosbie, Richard Lederer, and Norman Gilbert. Their product may sound to some unschooled ears like an illness - or perhaps a rhinoceros farting - but today's chevaliers de la bon mot are indeed fighting the good fight.

paronomasia \pair-uh-noh-MAY-zhee-uh\ noun a play on words.

Example sentence: Humorists claim that Harry Truman offered the delightful paronomasia "Missouri loves company" when he invited a friend to join him in Independence, Missouri, for a home-cooked meal.

Did you know? Puns (essentially, humorous uses of words to suggest more than one interpretation) have their share of critics as well as fans. English philosopher-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for example, called puns "the lowest form of wit." "Paronomasia," which derives from a Greek verb meaning "to call with a slight change of name," can simply be a synonym of "pun." But it can also be used, somewhat playfully, to suggest an uncontrollable urge to make puns (as if it were a dread disease, rather than harmless word play). For example, in the July 6, 1980 New York Times, William Safire announced, "an epidemic of paronomasia has raced around the world." And on January 1, 1989, Jerry Kobrin of The Orange County Register resolved to seek treatment "for a near-terminal case of paronomasia."