Word: puntiglio
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Dates: during 1972-1972
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Though puns may be used to political advantage-or disadvantage-punning has traditionally been more the farm of the artist than the playground of the politician. By punning, which probably derives from the Italian puntiglio (fine point), the writer grows ideas as well as wit. Aristophanes punned, with scatological exuberance, and so did Homer and Cicero. What was occasional in the classicists was fecund nature to Shakespeare. Because he had to play to the galleries, his plays were par for the coarse, brimming with such verbal pratfalls as "Discharge yourself of our company, Pistol." But Shakespeare could also buff...
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