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Puns and other wordplay

de richardhall, 2007-julio-12

Mesaĝoj: 27

Lingvo: English

pacepacapaco (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-14 04:04:20

If somebody finishes eighth (oke) in a race/contest, does that make her/him an eye (okulo)?

Or

We give congratulations (gratulo) willingly, but maybe it would be more appreciated if we would scratch (grati) their backs and become a "scratch person" (grat/ulo).

They're not the best, but I tried. Maybe somebody could work with them and make something out of them?

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-14 16:26:22

You can actually find the "Okulo" in an Esperanto textbook for children. It's the number 8, made up to look like a person.

pastorant (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-14 19:59:11

erinja:You can actually find the "Okulo" in an Esperanto textbook for children. It's the number 8, made up to look like a person.
What does nuo mean?

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-14 22:36:47

pastorant:What does nuo mean?
Nothing. "genuoj" (knees) could make you wonder whether your knees were named "nuo" and "nuino" (gepatroj: patro kaj patrino).

Explaining a joke is never fun, I know... ridulo.gif

taneli (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-15 01:10:30

richardhall:I'm fond of puns and wordplay in English, but haven't come across any Esperanto examples. Does anyone have any favourite Esperanto puns, or other forms of wordplay?
Sent-ema verkisto estas pli bona ol sen-tema verkisto.
Mi ne aĉet-as aĵojn kiuj aĉ-eg-as.

I've also composed some palindromes in Esperanto.

Ora trovo: vortaro!
A golden find: dictionary!

Amis korpo proksima.
A nearby body loved.

Nu, nur bele celebru nun.
Well, just celebrate beautifully now.

Here's a longer one I'm pretty proud about, despite the slightly twisted grammar near the beginning (it should be "ne juĝi matene"):

Memoru ne matene juĝi, ne cedigi. Raru bele, ine. Neniel ebura rigidec' eniĝu. Jen eta menuro mem!

Remember to judge not in the morning, not to make others cede. Be rare in a beautiful, female way. Ivory rigidity must not enter in any way. Behold, a little lyrebird itself!

By the way, my name (Taneli Huuskonen) can be anagrammed into "unu helsinkaneto". I do live in Helsinki, but I'm not exactly any kind of "-eto".

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-15 01:16:10

Sometime last year I was thinking about that aĉeti/aĉegi combination as well.

I made it into a little anti-Walmart joke at the time; I'd forgotten all about it till now:

"Kiam vi aĉetas ĉe Valmarto, vi ne nur aĉetas, vi aĉegas"

("When you buy at Walmart, you aren't just a little bit bad, you're really bad")

It was doubly fitting because at the time, I was at an Esperanto event out in the middle of nowhere, where the only place you could buy food was - yup, you guessed it. And even that was 20 minutes away. Most everyone brought what they needed from home, to avoid having to shop there.

pacepacapaco (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-15 03:01:10

I made it into a little anti-Walmart joke at the time; I'd forgotten all about it till now:

"Kiam vi aĉetas ĉe Valmarto, vi ne nur aĉetas, vi aĉegas"

("When you buy at Walmart, you aren't just a little bit bad, you're really bad")

It was doubly fitting because at the time, I was at an Esperanto event out in the middle of nowhere, where the only place you could buy food was - yup, you guessed it. And even that was 20 minutes away. Most everyone brought what they needed from home, to avoid having to shop there.
I live in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a town of about 24,000. We have two Walmarts in the area, in addition to a third that will be built on former farmland. The whole town has been boycotting Walmart. Also, I'm quite sure I saw a Walmart last time I visited my hometown, Wuppertal, Germany. It saddens me. ploro.gif

And to stay on topic... I think it's cute that "teamo" (Esperanto for "team") sounds like "te amo" (Spanish for "I love you").

pastorant (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-15 03:07:08

pacepacapaco:
I live in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a town of about 24,000. We have two Walmarts in the area, in addition to a third that will be built on former farmland. The whole town has been boycotting Walmart. Also, I'm quite sure I saw a Walmart last time I visited my hometown, Wuppertal, Germany. It saddens me. ploro.gif
From what I hear, Walmart went out of business in Germany for 2 reasons. 1) Germans don't like buying bread from the same place they buy a lawnmower. 2) Walmart couldn't pay the employee benefits that Germany (or the EU) demands.

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-15 22:16:14

Large supermarkets might not be much good for specific items like good curries (even that depends on whether they have a special counter, which some do), but you can get all the basics there like microwaveable croissants and cheese slices to put in them during the process and often also good low fat natural yogurt (which is excellent with biryani - don't knock it if you haven't tried it).

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2007-julio-16 13:24:06

I think the problem isn't with large supermarkets, but with huge stores that sell anything and everything, treat their employees like @#$!@, support sweatshop conditions in foreign countries, and charge such low prices that they put all small local businesses out of business.

I enjoy a well-stocked supermarket myself but avoid Walmart unless there's absolutely, positively, 100% no other option.

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