Double entendre
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A double entendre[note 1] (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacceptable, or offensive to state directly.[2][3]
A double entendre may exploit puns or word play to convey the second meaning. Double entendres generally rely on multiple meanings of words, or different interpretations of the same primary meaning. They often exploit ambiguity and may be used to introduce it deliberately in a text. Sometimes a homophone can be used as a pun. When three or more meanings have been constructed, this is known as a "triple entendre", etc.[4]
Etymology
According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression comes from the rare and obsolete
Structure
A person who is unfamiliar with the hidden or alternative meaning of a sentence may fail to detect its innuendos, aside from observing that others find it humorous for no apparent reason. Innuendo is often used in sitcoms and other comedy where some in the audience may enjoy the humour while being oblivious to its secondary meaning.
A triple entendre is a phrase that can be understood in any of three ways, such as in the back cover of the 1981
Usage
Literature
In Homer's The Odyssey, when Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, he tells the Cyclops that his name is Oudeis (ουδεις = No-one). When Odysseus attacks the Cyclops later that night and stabs him in the eye, the Cyclops runs out of his cave, yelling to the other Cyclopes that "No-one has hurt me!", which leads the other Cyclopes to take no action under the assumption that Polyphemus blinded himself by accident, allowing Odysseus and his men to escape.
Some of the earliest double entendres are found in the Exeter Book, or Codex exoniensis, at Exeter Cathedral in England. The book was copied around AD 975. In addition to the various poems and stories found in the book, there are also numerous riddles. The Anglo-Saxons did not reveal the answers to the riddles, but they have been answered by scholars over the years. Some riddles were double-entendres, such as Riddle 25 ("I am a wondrous creature: to women a thing of joyful expectation, to close-lying companions serviceable. I harm no city-dweller excepting my slayer alone. My stem is erect and tall––I stand up in bed––and whiskery somewhere down below. Sometimes a countryman's quite comely daughter will venture, bumptious girl, to get a grip on me. She assaults my red self and seizes my head and clenches me in a cramped place. She will soon feel the effect of her encounter with me, this curl-locked woman who squeezes me. Her eye will be wet.") which suggests the answer "a penis" but has the correct answer "an onion".[9]
Examples of sexual
The title of
Stage performances
Shakespeare frequently used double entendres in his plays.
In the UK, starting in the 19th century, Victorian morality disallowed sexual innuendo in the theatre as being unpleasant, particularly for the ladies in the audience. In music hall songs, on the other hand, this kind of innuendo remained very popular. Marie Lloyd's song "She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas" is an example of this. In the early 20th century restrictions were placed on lewdness in performances, including some prosecutions. It was the job of the Lord Chamberlain to examine the scripts of all plays for indecency. Nevertheless, some comedians still continued to get away with it. Max Miller had two books of jokes, a white book and a blue book, and would ask his audience which book they wanted to hear stories from. If they chose the blue book, he could blame the audience for the lewdness to follow (in the UK, "blue" colloquially refers to sexual content, as in "blue jokes", "blue movies" etc.).
Radio and television
In the United States,
In Britain, innuendo humour began to transfer to radio and
In 1968, the office of the Lord Chamberlain ceased to have responsibility for censoring live entertainment, after the Theatres Act 1968. By the 1970s, innuendo had become widely used across much of the British broadcast media, including sitcoms and radio comedy, such as I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. For example, in the 1970s TV comedy series Are You Being Served?, Mrs. Slocombe frequently referred to her pet cat as her "pussy", apparently unaware of how easily her statement could be misinterpreted, such as "It's a wonder I'm here at all, you know. My pussy got soakin' wet. I had to dry it out in front of the fire before I left". Someone unfamiliar with sexual slang might find this statement funny simply because of the references to her sodden cat, whereas others would find further humour in the innuendo ("pussy" being sexual slang for vulva).[16]
Modern comedies, such as the US version of
On The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1, listeners are asked to send in clips from radio and TV with double meanings in a humorous context, a feature known as "Innuendo Bingo". Presenters and special guests fill their mouths with water and listen to the clips, and the last person to spit the water out with laughter wins the game.[18][19]
Movies
Double entendres are popular in modern movies, as a way to conceal adult humour in a work aimed at general audiences. The
Bawdy double entendres, such as "I'm the kinda girl who works for Paramount by day, and Fox all night", and (from the movie Myra Breckinridge) "I feel like a million tonight – but only one at a time", are typical of the comedy writing of Mae West, for her early-career vaudeville performances as well as for her later plays and movies.
Music
There is a long tradition of double entendre songs in American blues music of the 1920s and 1930s, called hokum.
Double entendres are very common in the titles and lyrics of pop songs, such as "
Singer and songwriter
Social interaction
Double entendres can arise in the replies to inquiries. The clichéd phrase "Said the actress to the bishop", as well as "that's what she said", can be used to remark on a sentence said by another which was not intended as a double entendre but nevertheless could be interpreted with a double meaning, one of them sexual.[unreliable source?][22]
See also
Notes
- ^ The word double is often pronounced as in English and the second word with no nasalization at all, but some speakers attempt various degrees of imitation of French pronunciation for the second word, and then they tend to pronounce the first word as in French too. So pronunciations range from /ˈdʌbəl ɒnˈtɒnd(rə)/ DUB-əl on-TOND(-rə) to /ˈduːb.l ɒ̃ˈtɒ̃d(rə)/[1][2] (from French [dubl ɑ̃tɑ̃dʁ]).
References
- ^ "Definition of Double Entendre". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ a b "Double Entendre | Meaning & Definition for UK English | Lexico.com". Lexico.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ "Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English online". Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ "Double Entendre - Examples and Definition". Literary Devices. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "Login | Merriam-Webster Unabridged". Unabridged.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ a b "The Grammarphobia Blog: Double entendre". Grammarphobia.com. 12 October 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ "Double Entendre". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ "The Rush Frequently Asked Questions on the Internet File". nimitz.net. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017.
- ^ "Exeter Book Riddles". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
- ^ "Utopia – Definition of utopia by Merriam-Webster". Webster.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ A. D. Cousins (25 October 2004). "Utopia". Macquarie University. The Literary Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 11 July 2007.
- ISBN 0-485-12130-1.
- ^ Dexter, Gary (13 February 2011). "Title Deed: How the Book Got its Name". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "A funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century". Standard.co.uk. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ Barber, Laurie (12 December 2019). "Double meaning". Port Macquarie News. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ Gross, Daniel A. (24 January 2014). "That's What She Said: The Rise and Fall of the 2000s' Best Bad Joke". The Atlantic. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "Innuendo Bingo". 21 June 2011. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ "Get your hands off my double entendres! Is the smutty pun now under attack?". The Guardian. 7 May 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ O'Quinn, Colleen (3 March 2011). "Don't Hold It Against Me". XL Country 100.7. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "The ballad of Benny Bell and his novelty songs". nj. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "Fighter Pilot Speak". 13 June 2006. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
External links
- Media related to Double entendres at Wikimedia Commons
- 'Double Entendre' - meaning and origin