Concept in Definition ABC

The calambur is a type of Figure of speech based on misunderstanding and wordplay. In this sense, it is a rhetorical exercise that seeks the ingenious element in literary creation. The main idea This resource consists of grouping the syllables of a word in a different way than usual in order to give it a different meaning.

Literary examples

In the verses attributed to Quevedo "between the carnation and the rose, the majesty of him chooses" the play on words consists in creating a confusion between choose and be lame (with this famous verse the poet referred to the lameness of Queen Mariana of Austria, the wife of the Spanish King Felipe lV). Something very similar happens with other verses by Quevedo, "it came out to receive him as agreed" where agreed is equivalent to "with wine."

The poet Gloria Fuertes plays with words and exclaims "Oh hateful goddess!" or affirms that "the war does not stop, the war separates us" or "that it was mint at times and insane daily".

The above examples remind us that word combinations allow all kinds of games: laborious = pink lip, I know you come into my veins, he has a bad summer, he has an abnormal seeing, it is the end of Serafin, etc.

On synthesis, calambur is an ingenious combination of words that is based on some kind of likeness, either phonetic or semantic.

As for the etymological origin of the word, calambur is an Italianism that literally means "to joke with the pen." Although this figure of speech is part of the tradition Literary, it is also used in proverbs or popular riddles (for example, "I tell you, I tell you, I repeat it to you" refers to the word cloth).

In the greguería genre, the words are also played

The greguería is a gender literary devised by the Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888-1963). A greguería is a clever phrase, a surprising pun.

The approach de la greguería is based on the breaking of the logical rules of language. In other words, it is about giving a description of reality without the usual criteria. A small sample would be the following: the husband put on his favorite husband blue suit, the ñ is the only letter with bangs, the c is an or unfinished, the sunglasses went partying to the funeral, or the law gravity imposes itself in silence.

The palindrome is another clever play on words

The calambur has an internal mechanism: the similarity between two concepts. The same happens with the greguería, which is based on illogical description. In the case of the palindrome, the game consists of saying something that can be read in two directions with the same result. Among the most famous palindromes we could remember two: "Arriba la birra" or "Ana mis ojos imana".

Photos: Fotolia - Nikolay N. Antonov / RA2