▪ I. pun, n.1
(pʌn)
Also 7–8 punn.
[Appears first, with its cognate pun v.1, soon after 1660. Of unascertained origin: see Note below.]
a. The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect; a play on words.
| 1662 Dryden Wild Gall. i. i, A bare Clinch will serve the turn; a Carwichet, a Quarterquibble, or a Punn. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 37 Wits both ancient and modern..that never..received their improvements by employing their time in puns and quibbles. 1673 S'too him Bayes 92 If this..be no quibble, but a pun. 1683 E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Mystic Div. 15 What of Whims and Shams, Punns and Flams, Stultiloquious Dialogs? 1711 Addison Spect. No. 61 ¶6 Having pursued the History of a Punn,..I shall here define it to be a Conceit arising from the use of two Words that agree in the Sound, but differ in the Sense. 1727 Pope, etc. Art Sinking x. 97 The Paronomasia or Pun, where a word, like the tongue of a jackdaw, speaks twice as much by being split. 1746 Smollett Reproof 176 Debauch'd from sense, let doubtful meanings run The vague conundrum and the prurient pun. 1830 D'Israeli Chas. I, III. v. 74 Laud..turned out Archy, the King's fool, for a pun [viz. for saying as grace ‘Great praise be to God, and little Laud to the devil’, or words to that effect]. 1870 L'Estrange Miss Mitford I. v. 157 Even Shakespeare's magic is not proof against the artillery of puns. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as pun-hater, pun-trap; pun-abhorring, pun-admiring, pun-proof, pun-provoking adjs.
| 1721–2 Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 39. 204 It is no wonder that a punning monarch produced a race of punning and pun-admiring liege subjects. 1742 Shenstone School-mistress xi, The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme. 1830 G. Colman Br. Grins, Rem. Freshman (1872) 448 The intolerant pun-hater. 1839 Moriarty Husband Hunter III. 202 [He] frequently laid pun-traps and quibble-springes of which he took advantage. 1884 W. E. Henley in Ward Eng. Poets III. 230 A good and cheerful talker, whose piety was not always pun-proof. |
Hence (nonce-words) ˈpunless a., void of puns; ˈpunkin rare, ˈpunlet, a little pun; ˈpunnage, punning; ˈpunnic, ˈpunnical adjs., of, pertaining to, or characterized by puns; ˈpunnigram [after epigram], a punning saying or mot; puˈnnology, the subject or study of puns.
| 1866 H. James in Atlantic Monthly XVII. 197/2 Blunt and I made atrocious puns. I believe, indeed, that Miss Blunt herself made one little *punkin, as I called it. |
| 1716 Swift (folio broadsheet), God's Revenge against Punning... [Signed] ‘the *Punless and Penyless J. Baker, Knight’. 1864 Realm 6 Apr. 8 Let our ingenious dramatists try their hands at a punless burlesque with some real fun and interest in it. |
| 1819 Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1836) II. 287 The *punlet, or pun-maggot, or pun intentional. |
| a 1849 Poe Marginalia Wks. 1864 III. 564 Such chapters of *punnage as Hood was in the daily practice of committing to paper. |
| 1713 Birch Guard. No. 36 heading, What Rebuses exalt the *Punnic fame! 1721 Amherst Terræ Fil. xxxix. (1754) 204 Punning is not intirely banish'd from the pulpit... Some persons have alledged..that this pun-ick art is of divine institution. |
| 1780 R. Graves Euphrosyne II. 150 *Punnical. 1835 Tait's Mag. II. 420 Much that is merry and wise, punnical and entertaining. |
| 1888 Huxley in Life (1900) II. xiii. 211 You..have already made all possible epigrams and *punnigrams on the topic. |
| a 1744 Pope (Jod.), He might have been better instructed in the Greek *punnology. 1826 Examiner 179/2 The extreme antiquity of some of the described incidents and punnology. |
[Note. Pun was prob. one of the clipped words, such as cit, mob, nob, snob, which came into fashionable slang at or after the Restoration. Longer equivalents, found a 1676, were punnet and pundigrion; the former app. a dim. of pun. It has been suggested that pun might originally be an abbreviation of It. puntiglio, small or fine point, formerly also a cavil or quibble (‘cavillazione, sottigliezza nel ragionare, o nel disputare’, Vocab. Della Crusca), a pun being akin to a quibble; and that pundigrion might perh. be a perversion, illiterate or humorous, of puntiglio. This appears not impossible, but nothing has been found in the early history of pun, or in the English uses of punctilio, to confirm the conjecture.]
▪ II. pun, n.2
Also 8 punn.
[Related to pun v.2]
1. A layer or bed of clay to prevent leakage. ? Obs.
| 1795 J. Phillips Hist. Inland Navig. 365 A bed (technically a punn) of clay, to prevent the water weeping through the arches. |
2. A punner, a pounder, a rammer. local.
| 1905 J. T. Micklethwaite Let. 15 Sept. (MS.), Pun, a sort of great pestle for beating mortar. |
▪ III. pun, v.1
(pʌn)
[Goes with pun n.1]
1. intr. To make puns; to play on words.
| 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 33 Whether or no punning, quibling, and that which they call joquing, and such other delicacies of wit..might not be very conveniently omitted? 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Pun, to quibble or play with words. 1727 Swift God's Rev. agst. Punning Wks. 1755 III. i. 171 One Samuel an Irishman, for his forward attempt to pun, was stunted in his stature. 1729 in Pope Dunc. i. 63 note, A great Critick formerly..declared He that would pun would pick a Pocket. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. xxiii. (1819) 292 Edgar in Lear, who, in imitation of the gipsy incantations, puns on the old word mair, a hag. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. iii, I punned and jested. |
| fig. 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle ii. ii, Here, here, master; how it [wine] puns and quibbles in the glass! |
2. trans. To bring or drive by punning.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 61 ¶2 The Sermons of Bishop Andrews..are full of them [puns]. The Sinner was punned into Repentance. 1888 Crawford With Immortals II. xii. 131 To be punned to death, sir, would be equally horrible. |
▪ IV. pun, v.2
[Early and dial. var. of pound v.1]
1. trans. = pound v.1 in various senses.
| 1559–1903 [see pound v.1 1 β, 2 β]. |
2. spec. (in technical use). To consolidate by pounding or ramming down (as earth or rubble, in setting poles, etc., or making a roadway); = pound v.1 6.
| 1838 Simms Public Wks. Gt. Brit. 8 The materials shall be..well punned, rammed and beaten down. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 196 Too much stress cannot be laid upon good sound punning. The earth, as it is thrown in, should be thoroughly well punned at every stage. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. ii. 95 The material used for the puddle..should be carefully punned in thin layers so as to secure that no vacuities are left in any part. |
b. To work up to a proper consistency with a punner.
| 1825 W. Parsons in Fowler Corr. (priv. printed 1907) 534 Barrow lime mortar and washed sand made through a fine riddle and punned up to a proper consistency, using as little water as possible. [1907 Note, Well worked up with a ‘pun’, a wooden implement something like a great pestle.] |
Hence ˈpunning vbl. n.; also in comb. ˈpunning-block, a mechanical rammer.
| 1838 Simms Public Wks. Gt. Brit. 33 The operation of punning or packing performed, until the brickwork is complete. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 190 No matter how well the punning and ramming may be done after the pole is planted,..a considerable time will always elapse before the earth settles back to its former condition. |