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The Word of the Day for January 22 is:

paronomasia   \pair-uh-no-MAY-zhee-uh or pair-ah-nuh-MAY-zhee-uh\
(noun)
     : a play on words : pun

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. 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."

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