Obsolete phrases 2805

Ah, I've done alittleresearch into this:

A homonym is a word that has the same pronunciation or spelling (or both) as another word, but a different meaning. Homonyms can be subdivided into: * Homophones - words that are pronounced the same (and may or may not be spelt the same), but differ in meaning, such as waste and waist. * Homographs - words that are spelled the same (and may or may not be pronounced the same), but differ in meaning, such as desert (abandon) and desert (arid region).

Here's someone who enjoys them a lot:

I consider homonyms to be the prime numbers of the English language. Like primes, they cannot be predicted by any rules of grammar or diction. In the way that you can't search the number line for primes, you cannot systematically search the dictionary for homonyms. You just have to find them, like Easter Eggs in the dictionary.

I used to have a homonym pop-up book. I remember a few pages: - the train station master's watch popped up to reveal it's two to two and two two too - the baseball playing duck ... bat met ball and ball took wing the crowd let out a mighty howl, but the umpire cried this fowl hit foul

-- jeffj --

-- mejeep deMeep ferret!