HUMOROUS ENGLISH SEMANTICS

“There’s glory for you!” “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory.’” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.

“Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

(from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass)

Rich Hall invented the term “sniglet” for a word that should be in the dictionary, but isn’t.

· Elbonics (el bon’ iks) n. The actions of two people maneuvering for one armrest in a movie theater

· Esso Asso (eso a’so): n. The person behind you in a right-hand turn lane who cuts through the Esso Station

· Pupkus (pup’kus) n. The moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it

· Phonesia (fo nee’ zhuh) n. The affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer

Don and Alleen Nilsen “Humor Across the Academic Disciplines” PowerPoints:

https://www.public.asu.edu/~dnilsen/