another silly poll

[low_delta]

[Poll #166489]

Comments

8/12/03 Word Of The Day

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

wellerism (WEH-luh-ri-zuhm) noun

An expression involving a familiar proverb or quotation and its facetious sequel. It usually comprises three parts: statement, speaker, situation.

Examples:

"Everyone to his own liking," the old woman said when she kissed her cow.

"We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car.

[After Sam Weller and his father, characters known for such utterances in Charles Dickens's novel Pickwick Papers (1837).]

"All of the Shavian proverbs and most of the wellerisms have been recorded in a literary context ... Anyhow, 'So far so good,' as the boy said when he had finished the first pot of his mother's jam." W F H Nicolaisen; The Proverbial Bernard Shaw; Folklore (London, UK); 1998.