# Is There A Term For This Type Of Wordplay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400 "2018-02-07T23:09:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/21 "2018-02-09T04:00:26Z")
In addition to “reanalysis”, maybe false splitting, rebracketing, resegmentation? > **[Rebracketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebracketing)** > > Rebracketing (also known as resegmentation or metanalysis) is a process in historical linguistics where a word originally derived from one set of morphemes is broken down or bracketed into a different set. For example, hamburger, originally from Hamburg+er, has been rebracketed into ham+burger, and burger was later reused as a productive morpheme in coinages such as cheeseburger. It is usually a form of folk etymology, or may seem to be the result of valid morphological processes. > Rebracketing o... > ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/22 "2018-02-09T04:47:56Z")
This is why I now type extra carefully when googling for Hilary Swank movies. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/23 "2018-02-09T05:39:06Z")
Reminds me of the story about why the Chevy Nova had to think twice about advertising in Spanish-speaking countries about a car called “No va” Of course, for over a decade I thought “link edln” was some sort of web site for Linux geeks… The trouble with being to computer-technical I guess. There’s a frequent history of suffixes being appropriated for associative description - from panorama for Cinerama, Casinorama, etc. Or -gate from Watergate now tacked onto any scandal. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/24 "2018-02-09T08:17:46Z")
The “No va” story is an urban legend: > **[Did the Chevrolet Nova Fail to Sell in Spanish-Speaking Countries?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/)** > > Did the Chevrolet Nova sell poorly in Spanish-speaking countries? ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/25 "2018-02-09T09:12:15Z")
One of the stupider threads. People must be bored now the Superb Owl has gone. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/26 "2018-02-09T11:21:10Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > There’s a frequent history of suffixes being appropriated for associative description - from panorama for Cinerama, Casinorama …Bananarama. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/27 "2018-02-09T21:06:00Z")
Maybe if some Dopers asked their cow-orkers, we might get an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/28 "2018-02-10T00:40:17Z")
I cannot see the name Heather without mentally breaking it down to heat her. mmm ETA: And Plymouth will always be ply mouth. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/29 "2018-02-10T00:50:18Z")
There is (was?) a doper named mangetout. Intended as “mange tout”, French for “consume everything”. Could be read as “man get out”. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/30 "2018-02-10T01:50:19Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I cannot see the name Heather without mentally breaking it down to heat her. > mmm > > ETA: And Plymouth will always be ply mouth. And we are going together to get her. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/31 "2018-02-10T03:23:07Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I’ll be darned. I thought _I_ wrote that joke! You know how Tampa, Florida becomes Tampax, Florida if you put an X on the end of it? I made that up. So did a lot of other 11-year-olds. 😛 p.s. Long story made short: At about that age, my brother insisted that he made up “If You See Kay”. I also heard about a blocker placed on an elementary school library computer that could not access “[marsexploration.com](http://marsexploration.com)” because it had s-e-x in it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/32 "2018-02-10T03:26:30Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Reminds me of the story about why the Chevy Nova had to think twice about advertising in Spanish-speaking countries about a car called “No va” > > Of course, for over a decade I thought “link edln” was some sort of web site for Linux geeks… The trouble with being to computer-technical I guess. > > There’s a frequent history of suffixes being appropriated for associative description - from panorama for Cinerama, Casinorama, etc. Or -gate from Watergate now tacked onto any scandal. When I was taking organic chemistry, I saw a reference to the movie “PSYCHO” (spelled in all caps) and I read it as p-s-y and an aldehyde group. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/33 "2018-02-10T03:34:48Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I also heard about a blocker placed on an elementary school library computer that could not access “[marsexploration.com](http://marsexploration.com)” because it had s-e-x in it. Known as the [Scunthorpe problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/34 "2018-02-10T17:58:00Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > And we are going together to get her. When I was a child, my evil dad told me about a time when the star of a TV show (Red Skelton, maybe?) doing a live spot to introduce that year’s new Plymouth. The star leaned over the hood, where a camera close-up showed the chrome letters P-L-Y-O-M-U-T-H. I never found out if it was true. In those days, TV show’s stars would do live commercials for the sponsor. Dinah Shore famously sang, “See the USA in your Chevrolet,” for example. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/35 "2018-02-10T21:49:57Z")
Just randomly came up with another one, not a half hour ago: Le Tits Now mmm ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/36 "2018-02-10T22:25:33Z")
I’ve always been infected with puns such as this. Sometimes even with usernames here. For instance, our sometimes visitor Man Trap Hilter. And a regular poster that I always think of as K9 Beef Render. (That, of course, is altering the pronunciation, not the spacing of spaces.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/37 "2018-02-10T22:42:11Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > One of the stupider threads. > > People must be bored now the Superb Owl has gone. **Moderator Note** **Banksiaman** , threadshitting is against the rules. If you find a thread stupid, there is no reason to post in it. No warning issued, but do not do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/38 "2018-02-10T22:54:17Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > p.s. Long story made short: At about that age, my brother insisted that he made up “If You See Kay”. Among others, Memphis Slim just might have beaten him to it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EQ-ejcnEHgE/maxresdefault.jpg "If You Say Kay") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ-ejcnEHgE) ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/39 "2018-02-11T01:06:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **Moderator Note** > > **Banksiaman** , threadshitting is against the rules. If you find a thread stupid, there is no reason to post in it. No warning issued, but do not do this again. > > Colibri > General Questions Moderator No thread-shitting intention, so please don’t take it as that. It’s intended [perhaps a failed hope] to be the first part of the joke rather than a declaration about the thread - as in ‘People are obviously flailing around meaninglessly atomising grammar about because The Big Event that took up all their attention / Large Bird has passed and sapped their will to do anything useful.’ It didn’t raise anyone’s dander so far, so maybe others got it or gave it the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400/40 "2018-02-11T01:08:02Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > When I was a child, my evil dad told me about a time when the star of a TV show (Red Skelton, maybe?) doing a live spot to introduce that year’s new Plymouth. The star leaned over the hood, where a camera close-up showed the chrome letters P-L-Y-O-M-U-T-H. I never found out if it was true. I just got an expansion to a board game (Terraforming Mars: Venus Next) and one of the cards has flavor text which reads something like “building cooler spaces for wealthy costumers” which of course will pass a spellchecker but I assume is not intended to refer to millionaire cosplayers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-wordplay/808400.md?page=3)