Noun: pun
| Singular | pun |
| Plural | puns; pun |
Sample Sentences
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The pun is the lowest form of wit.
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"Certainly, my home at my uncle's brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears, and Vices, I saw enough. Now do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat." [1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 124:]
Nouns inflected like pun
whiting,
Munduruku,
Mundurucu,
sempai,
senpai,
saseng,
satang,
cunjevoi,
sansei,
Namboothiri,
somoni,
Sentinelese,
siopao,
shogun,
shinza,
Barakzai,
Chippewyan,
Diaguita,
shōgun,
thermal horsepower, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto-Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of “beating” the words into place. See: Old English Nouns '
punian'.