{{Short description|Form of joke}} A '''transpositional pun''' is a pun format with two aspects. It involves transposing the words in a well-known phrase or saying to get a daffynition-like clever redefinition of a well-known word unrelated to the original phrase. The redefinition is thus the first aspect, and the transposition the second aspect. As a result, transpositional puns are considered among the most difficult to create, and commonly the most challenging to comprehend, particularly for non-native speakers of the language in which they're given (most commonly English).<ref>{{cite book | title=The Pun Also Rises | publisher=Gotham Books | author=Pollack, John | year=2012 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781592406753/page/12 12–13] | isbn=978-1-59240-675-3 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781592406753/page/12 }}</ref>
==Examples==
{| class=wikitable ! style=width:50% | Transpositional pun !Original reference !Ref. |- |Dieting: A waist is a terrible thing to mind. |"A mind is a terrible thing to waste", the motto of the United Negro College Fund. |<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Ronald D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IrpGxphxD9gC |title=Strategic Planning for Public Relations |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-50676-2 |page=223 |language=en}}</ref> |- |Hangovers: The wrath of grapes. |''The Grapes of Wrath'' |<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oring |first=Elliott |date=1995 |title=Appropriate incongruities: Genuine and spurious |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/humr.1995.8.3.229/html |journal=Humr |language=en |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=229–236 |doi=10.1515/humr.1995.8.3.229 |issn=0933-1719|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- |Sports officials: The souls that time men's tries. |"These are the times that try men's souls.", Thomas Paine |<ref>{{Cite book |last=Isaacs |first=Stan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=16gDEQAAQBAJ |title=Out of Left Field: A Sportswriter's Last Word |date=2024-05-14 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-05665-9 |at=[https://books.google.be/books?id=16gDEQAAQBAJ&pg=PT78 PT78] |language=en}}</ref> |- |The oboe: An ill wind that nobody blows any good. |"'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good." |<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ammer |first=Christine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_LxuR1jMVgC |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition |date=2013 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-547-67658-6 |page=222 |language=en}}</ref> |- |Feudalism: It's your count that votes! |"It's your vote that counts!" |<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carr |first=Paul R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sL2kjQCGEsEC |title=Does Your Vote Count?: Critical Pedagogy and Democracy |date=2011 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-1-4331-0813-6 |page=xiv |language=en}}</ref> |- |Soldiers of fortune: Give chance a piece. |"Give peace a chance." |{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}} |}
==See also== * Antimetabole * Anti-proverb * Chiasmus * Russian reversal * Spoonerism
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Puns