Talk:Paronym

History and usage in humor

I found the following two sources which appear to be useful to explain this word:

Paronyms can be formed by addition or by subtraction.

Source: Cooper, Lane (1922). An Aristotelian theory of comedy : with an adaptation of the Poetics, and a translation of the "Tractatus Coislinianus". New York : Harcourt, Brace. p. 233.

Humor

In Tractatus coislinianus, Aristotle classified the types of humor.

Source: Attardo, Salvatore (1994). Linguistic Theories of Humor. Walter de Gruyter. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-11-014255-6.

I am not familar with the field of linguistics. Please help to further clarify if these should be added into the article. Comments welcome - DutchTreat (talk) 22:39, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Words "diligence" and "dirigence"

"Diligence" signifies "love" and "dirigence" "conduction". These two words are paronymic. Its correlates are "dilect", "dilected", "dilection", "dilector", "diligent", "direct", "directed", "direction", "director", "dirigent" and so on.

200.155.117.201 (talk) 14:40, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

And that particular pair of paronyms is of interest because? Guy Harris (talk) 20:57, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

"Diligence" (with "L") is a connected word with "love" and "dirigence" (with "R") a connected with "conduction". "Predilection" is a derivated word of "dilection" ("love").

21:34, 19 February 2025 (UTC) 189.50.186.221 (talk) 21:34, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps interesting, but not particularly relevant to the concept of a paronym, so WP:NOTFORUM - get a blog or Substack or something such as that. Guy Harris (talk) 22:23, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

"Elian" and "helian"/"Helian"

"Elian" and "helian"/"Helian" are paronymic words.

"Elian" signifies "relative to Elijah", "helian" "relative to helium" and "Helian" "relative to a Helius". The paronyms "Elian" and "Helian" are two significationally different masculine prenames.

189.50.186.221 (talk) 13:37, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

There are more paronyms than that; why are those particularly notable? Guy Harris (talk) 20:55, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Explication: The etymology of "Elijah" signifies "the Lord is my God" and the etymology of "Helius" "Sun".

189.50.186.221 (talk) 22:04, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps interesting, but not particularly relevant to the concept of a paronym, so WP:NOTFORUM - get a blog or Substack or something such as that. Guy Harris (talk) 22:22, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Flail and fail?

They can be used in similar contexts: "The AI was failing" vs "the AI was flailing (about)". "Flail" can be used figuratively to refer to frantic activity that doesn't work. It can therefore refer to a failure of sorts. Svennik (talk) 14:16, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Linguistics in the Digital Age

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 August 2025 and 10 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jeylotte (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Jeylotte (talk) 02:20, 11 December 2025 (UTC)