A Turn Of Phrase

I am a lover of puns and other language related humor.  My daughters are known to roll their eyes at my routine musings. The English language has so many opportunities to paint silly pictures with words.   Humor derived in the turning of phrases is amusing and merry. With light or heavy brush strokes,  it is possible to turn a phrase around to add innuendo, wacky humor, even sarcasm.

Turning of phrases to me includes turning phrases around on their own backside. I think one common one we are all familiar with is turning the word 'butterfly' into 'flutterby'.  Not particularly funny, but a great example of how turning the word around allows much more meaning to be obtained. What does butter have to do with these winged insects?

But, do these creatures not flutter by when you see one? The turn of phrase is more appropriate then the original word.

Today, in a work note, I turned a common phrase, 'more bang for your buck' on it's tush to achieve 'more buck for your bang', a phrase with several levels of meaning, including some obvious (a gun and a deer), a couple innuendos, and even a possibility of a racial undertone I don't particularly care to emphasize. Yet, it added color and texture to another one of those yawn inspiring work notes I deal with all day long.


Oh heck, what's not too love about the English Language? With a twist of a few letters, a strange and new word creature is created. The mad word doctor Kotkas has struck again.

So, just to play a bit with words....I will try a few other phrase turns here just off the top of my 'tongue':

"Going to Hand in a Hell Basket'.  Well, OK.

"A hand buried in the bush is too worthy' - Ahh. oh my.

"When Johnny Comes, March him home".   You start to see the the innuendos piling up now, right?

I am not saying each of these are exactly barn-beaters. But you can see the possibilities now, right? And each of these came up right as I was typing them.

I love playing with words. Therefore I blog.

Cheers, nca