pun (subs.) Copy link Outline 1. perh. most specific lŏgi (λόγοι)2. Cicero, himself an inveterate punster, probably included puns under făcētĭae, when he says, ego mirifice capior facetiis, maxime nostratibus, Cic. Fam. 9, 153. puns are at least included under acumen in the following4. argūtĭŏla, f. (?) • pun (subs.): difficult to find an exact Latin equivalent: several gen. terms for jest, point, wit, etc., may be used. 1. perh. most specific lŏgi (λόγοι): logos ridiculos vendo, Pl. Pers. 3, 1, 66: omnes logos, qui ludis dicti sunt, animadvertisse, Cic. Fr. ap. Non. 63, 18. 2. Cicero, himself an inveterate punster, probably included puns under făcētĭae, when he says, ego mirifice capior facetiis, maxime nostratibus, Cic. Fam. 9, 15: cf. id. de Or. 2, 61, 248, facetiis autem maxime homines delectari, si quando risus conjuncte re verboque moveatur. (More definitely, *facetiarum id genus quod in similitudine verborum vertitur.) 3. puns are at least included under acumen in the following: genus acuminis in reprehendendis verbis, nonnunquam frigidum, interdum etiam facetum, Cic. Brut. 67, 236, 158 (cf. id. de Or. 2, 38). And this suits the probable etymology (from Fr. pointe), as does ăcūleus, m. (v. Cic. Ac. Post. 2, 31, 98). 4. argūtĭŏla, f. (?): prop. a quibble, Gell. 9, 14. Other terms, perhaps more or less admissible, are, allūsio (Am. 7, 229), or a. verborum, jŏcus, jŏcŭlus, jŏcŭlāria, lusus verborum, ridiculum dictum, Quint. 6, 3, 6: dull and far-fetched p.s, frigidi et arcessiti joci, Suet. Claud. 21: the wretched p.s made upon Verres (by Cicero), quae sunt in Verrem dicta frigidius, Quint. 6, 3, 4. (N.B.--The play upon words, as a regular figure of speech, which is only a more solemn pun, was called by the grammarians agnōmĭnātio, f., or paronomasia [παρονομασία], Quint. 9, 3, 66.)