Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Double Entendres
I say we go with double entendres as suggested by Danny. What exactly are they? Per Wikipedia:
A double entendre (French pronunciation: [dubl??t??d??]) or adianoeta[1] is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first (more obvious) meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué, inappropriate, or ironic.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a double entendre as especially being used to “convey an indelicate meaning”. It is often used to express potentially offensive opinions without the risks of explicitly doing so.
A double entendre may exploit puns to convey the second meaning. Double entendres tend to rely more 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 using a homophone (i.e. a different spelling that yields the same pronunciation) can sometimes be used as a pun as well as a “double entendre” of the subject.
My contribution comes from the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies:
James Bond: [Whilst being in bed with his Scandinavian language tutor] I always enjoyed learning a new tongue.
Moneypenny: You always were a cunning linguist, James.
So let’s have it: A week’s worth of double entendres, sly twists of language that say one thing in the text, but can mean quite another in subtext.
As usual, if you can copy/paste from IMDB Quotes, that would be groovy.
And if you can take a second to try to locate an accompanying video on YouTube, that would be even groovier.
Double entendre away!