punster
(ˈpʌnstə(r))
[f. pun v.1 + -ster.]
A professed maker of puns; one addicted to or skilled in punning. (In first quot., a quibbler.)
| 1700 Congreve Way of World v. i, To be a Theme for legal Punsters, and Quiblers by the Statute:..to discompose the gravity of the Bench. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 61 ¶2 That learned Monarch [James I] was himself a tolerable Punnster. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 471 [Jane, the King's Professor of Divinity] was so unfortunate as to have a name which was an excellent mark for the learned punsters of his University. Several epigrams were written on the double-faced Janus. 1965 W. S. Allen Vox Latina 107 In the sixteenth century we find punsters identifying e.g. habitaculum with French habit à cul long. 1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. 14c/1 The latest from the most outrageous living punster, bad jokester and molester of the language. |
Hence ˈpunstress (nonce-wd.), a female punster.
| 1825 Scott Fam. Lett. (1894) II. xxi. 279 Anne..is a decided punstress. |