"Do you mean to say the pun-question is not clearly settled in your minds? Let me lay down the law upon the subject. Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide -that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life-are alike forbidden. Manslaughter, which is the meaning of the one, is the same as man's laughter, which is the end of the other."
"a pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide."
Puns function as enduring linguistic play that provokes both amusement and reproach. A 19th-century legal metaphor compared punning to 'homicide and verbicide,' framing violent treatment of words as forbidden and equating manslaughter with 'man's laughter.' The metaphor suggested that an aggravated pun might warrant severe judgment. Puns appear in modern media and benefit from timing and delivery for effect. Digital search and SEO struggle to capture punning because double meanings and wordplay evade straightforward indexing and literal keyword matching.
Read at The Atlantic
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