OT: Swifties and Croakers (was: Ton-tongue toffies and ...)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 157642

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, grich277080 at ... wrote:
>
> Lilygale here: 
> >> <snip> I've been re-reading POA. I found a never-before noticed 
> "Tom Swiftie" (unintentional? with JKR, who knows).
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Lilygale, who remembers that JKR's sense of humor is what drew her
> to Harry Potter in the first place <<
> 
> 
> AnnR:
> What is 'Tom Swiftie'?  Is it an Americanism, I don't remember 
> reading it in POA.  I too like her humor.
>


bboyminn:

To continue a discussion of Swifties, we should move to the OTChatter
group.

http://www.baetzler.de/humor/tom_swiftie.var

-- quote --
Not many dictionaries define "Tom Swiftie". One that does is The
Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1st edition (1966):

"Tom Swiftie, a play on words that follows an unvarying pattern and
relies for its humor on a punning relationship between the way an
adverb describes a speaker and at the same time refers significantly
to the import of the speaker's statement, as in 

"I know who turned off the lights," Tom hinted darkly. 

[named after a narrative mannerism characteristic of the Tom Swift
American series of adventure novels for boys]" 

In actual use, "Tom Swiftie" seems to have a somewhat broader meaning,
and includes the form christened "croakers" by Roy Bongartz, wherein a
verb rather than an adverb supplies the pun (e.g. "I'm dying", he
croaked).

-- end quote --

Just passing it along.

Steve/bboyminn