Daffynition
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A daffynition (portmanteau of daffy and definition) is a pun format involving the reinterpretation of an existing word, on the basis that it sounds like another word (or group of words). They are similar to transpositional puns, but often much less complex and easier to create. Some daffynitions may be cheap puns, but others can be clever, such as "raisins = the wrath of grapes". A subclass of daffynition is the goofinition which relies strictly on literal associations and correct spellings, such as "lobster = a weak tennis player".
Under the name Uxbridge English Dictionary making up daffynitions is a popular game on the BBC Radio 4 comedy quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
[edit] Examples
- abominable: A bull that swallowed a bomb. (a-bomb-in-a-bull)
- alarms: What an octopus is. (all arms)
- Bangalore: No end of an explosion. (bang-galore)
- bigamist: An Italian fogbank. (big-a-mist)
- buccaneer: too much to pay for corn ([a] buck an ear)
- burglarize: What a crook sees with (burglar eyes)
- cobra: A feminine undergarment made for Siamese twins. (co-bra)
- crèche: An upmarket motor accident. (Crèche/Crash)
- dandelion: A fashionably dressed big cat (dandy lion)
- decadent: Possessing only ten teeth. (deca-dent)
- dilate: live long (die late)
- dockyard: A physician's garden. (doc yard)
- dynamite: To take a flea out to dinner. (dine-a-mite)
- garbage: Eatables smelled backwards. (smelled-spelled)
- geometry: What the sapling said when it grew up. ("Gee, I'm a tree")
- hula dance: Wild waist show. (Wild West-wild waist)
- Homerphobia: Hatred of Homer Simpson. (Simpsons)
- impolite: A flaming elf. (imp-alight)
- indistinct: where one places dirty dishes (indistinct/in the sink)
- innuendoes: Italian suppositories. (in-you-end-os)
- oboe: An English tramp. (hobo)
- paradox: Two doctors. (pair of docs) OR Where one ties two boats. (Pair of docks)
- parasites: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower. (Paris sites)
- pasteurise: Too far to see. (past your eyes)
- perpetuate: The canary you had for breakfast. (poor pet you ate)
- portent: The Millennium Dome. (Poor Tent)
- pronoun: A noun that has lost its amateur status. (pro + noun) (From Calvin and Hobbes)
- propaganda: A gentlemanly goose. (proper gander)
- quack doctor: One who "ducks" the law.
- shrewd: A rude shrew. (shrew + rude)
- shrink: An ice-skating shrew. (shrew + rink)
- suitable: A cow. (Suit a bull)
- zebra: 25 sizes larger than an A-bra. (Zee bra-zebra) (Z is pronounced "Zed" in English)
