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Wellerism
Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel ''The Pickwick Papers'', make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, Wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation. Sam Weller's propensity to use the types of constructions now called "Wellerisms" has inspired plays; sometimes, the playwrights have created even more Wellerisms. A type of Wellerism called a Tom Swifty incorporates a speaker attribution that puns on the quoted statement. Examples from ''The Pickwick Papers'' * "Then the next question is, what the devil do you want with me, as the man said, wen he see the ghost?" * "Out vith it, as the father said to his child, when he swallowed a farden." * "Wery glad to see you, indeed, and hope our acquaintance may b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Weller (character)
Sam Weller is a fictional character in ''The Pickwick Papers'' (1836-37), the first novel by Charles Dickens, and the character that made Dickens famous. A humorous Cockney bootblack, Sam Weller first appeared in the fourth serialised episode. Previously the monthly parts of the book had been doing badly, selling only about 1,000 copies a month — but the humour of the character transformed the book into a publishing phenomenon, raising the sales by late autumn of 1837 to 40,000 a month.Baer, Florence EWellerisms in ''The Pickwick Papers'' ''Folklore'', Published by Taylor & Francis, Ltd, Vol. 94, No. 2 (1983), pp. 173-183 On the impact of the character, ''The Paris Review'' stated, "arguably the most historic bump in English publishing is the Sam Weller Bump." Such was the popularity of the character that William Thomas Moncrieff named his 1837 burletta '' Samuel Weller, or, The Pickwickians'' after the main comic character in the novel, rather than on Samuel Pickwick himse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proverb
A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is a type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. Collectively, they form a folklore genre, genre of folklore. Some proverbs exist in more than one language because people borrow them from languages and cultures with which they are in contact. In the West, the Bible (including, but not limited to the Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin (aided by the work of Erasmus) have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs. Not all Biblical proverbs, however, were distributed to the same extent: one scholar has gathered evidence to show th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John Dickens, John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Swifty
A Tom Swifty (or Tom Swiftie) is a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is attributed. Tom Swifties may be considered a type of wellerism. The standard syntax is for the quoted sentence to be first, followed by the pun (usually a description of the act of speaking): "If you want me, I shall be in the attic," said Tom, loftily. The hypothetical speaker is usually, by convention, called "Tom" (or "he" or "she"). Origins The name comes from the Tom Swift series of books (1910–present), similar in many ways to the better-known Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, and, like them, produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Written under the house pseudonym of " Victor Appleton", a stylistic idiosyncrasy of the books was that they took great trouble to avoid repetition of the unadorned word "said", instead using a different quotative verb, or modifying adverbial words or phrases in a kind of elegant variation. This led to a parody of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Mieder
Wolfgang Mieder (born 17 February 1944 in Nossen) is a retired professor of German and folklore who taught for 50 years at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University of Michigan (MA), and Michigan State University (PhD). He has been a guest speaker at the University of Freiburg in Germany, the country where he was born. He is most well known as a scholar of paremiology, the study of proverbs, Alan Dundes labeling him "''Magister Proverbium,'' paremiologist without peer". He also produced many bibliographies, both articles and volumes, on several topics within paremiology. His most complete work in this area is his 2009 ''International Bibliography of Paremiology and Phraseology'', published in two volumes. In 2023, his ''International Bibliography of Paremiology and Phraseology (2008-2022)'' was published. From 1984 through 2021 he was the editor of '' Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-proverb
An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humour, humorous effect. Paremiology, Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom". Anti-proverbs are ancient, Aristophanes having used one in his play ''Peace (play), Peace'', substituting "bell" (in the unique compound "bellfinch") for "bitch, female dog", twisting the standard and familiar "The hasty bitch gives birth to blind" to "The hasty bellfinch gives birth to blind". Anti-proverbs have also been defined as "an allusive distortion, parody, misapplication, or unexpected contextualization of a recognized proverb, usually for comic or satiric effect".p. xi, Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, & Fred Shapiro. ''The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs''. New Haven: Yale University Press. To have full effect, an anti-proverb must be based on a known proverb. For example, "If at f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pickwick Papers
''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was the Debut novel, first novel serialised from March 1836 to November 1837 by English author Charles Dickens. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour (illustrator), Robert Seymour, and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller (character), Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise. On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in ''The Atlantic'' writes, "'Literature' is not a big enough category for ''Pickwick''. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call 'entertainment'." Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of ''The Pickwick Papers'' popularised Serial (literature), serialised fiction and cliffhan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼnja. A part of the French West Indies (Antilles), Martinique is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region and a single territorial collectivity of France. It is a part of the European Union as an outermost region within the special territories of members of the European Economic Area, and an associate member of the Caribbean Community, CARICOM, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) but is not part of the Schengen Area or the European Union Customs Union. The currency in use is the euro. It has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2021 for its entire land and sea territory. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bo Almqvist
Bo Gunnar Almqvist (5 May 1931 – 9 November 2013) was a Swedish academic and folklorist. Early life Bo Gunnar Almqvist was born on 5 May 1931 in Edsgatan, a small community in Alster, a farming district in the province of Värmland, Sweden, an area noted for its old customs and traditions. He was the youngest child, born eleven years after his siblings, in the family of two sons and three daughters of Oskar Almqvist, a 'landfiskal', effectively the police superintendent of the rural area, and Hulda Almqvist (née Rydberg). Oskar Almqvist died when Bo was fourteen and mother and son moved to the town of Karlstad, where he attended Karlstad Läroverk, the local secondary school. Hulda Almqvist worked for a time in her family's hat making business. She had a remarkable repertoire of traditional proverbs to be used on any occasion, and her knowledge of folklife crafts and calendar customs deepened her son's interest in the folkways and oral culture of his native region. Career In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraprosdokian
A paraprosdokian (), or par'hyponoian, is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists, such as Groucho Marx. Etymology "Paraprosdokian" derives from Greek '' παρά'' "against" and '' προσδοκία'' "expectation". The noun ''prosdokia'' occurs with the preposition ''para'' in Greek rhetorical writers of the 1st century BCE and the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, with the meaning "contrary to expectation" or "unexpectedly." While the word is now in wide circulation, "paraprosdokian" (or "paraprosdokia") is not a term of classical (or medieval) Greek or Latin rhetoric; it was first attested in 1896. Double meaning Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luri Language
Luri (, ) is a Southwestern Iranian language continuum spoken by the Lurs, an Iranian people native to West Asia. The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian and are Central Luri, Bakhtiari,G. R. Fazel, 'Lur', in Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, ed. R. V. Weekes (Westport, 1984), pp. 446–447 and Southern Luri. This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and the Northern and Southern Lurs ( Lorestan, Ilam, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Mamasani, Sepidan, Bandar Ganaveh, Bandar Deylam) in Iran. History The '' Encyclopedia of Islam'' calls Luri “an aberrant form of archaic Persian.” The language descends from either Middle Persian or Old Persian. It belongs to the “''Perside'' southern Zagros group” (as opposed to Kurdish dialects of northern Zagros), and is lexically similar to modern Persian, differing mainly in phonology. According to the '' Encyclopædia Iranica'', "All Lori dialects closely resemble standard Persian and probably dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pashto
Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari, Constitution of Afghanistan �''Chapter 1 The State, Article 16 (Languages) and Article 20 (Anthem)''/ref> and it is the second-largest provincial language of Pakistan, spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan. Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million, (40 million) although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. Geograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
