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Monday, April 12, 2010

The Tom Swifty Wellerism

Cover illustration for TOM SWIFT and His Giant Robot,
volume 4 of the Tom Swift, Jr. series authored by Victor Appleton II

Tom Swifties are a special kind of pun, a type of Wellerism. Sam Weller in Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" (1836-7) was prone to producing punning sentences such as: 'Out with it, as the father said to the child when he swallowed a farden [farthing]'. This type of verbal play, involving a metaphorical and a punningly literal sense, soon gained popularity under the name of wellerism, and a craze for devising such expressions rapidly sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic. A Tom Swifty is a Wellerism in which an adverb relates both properly and punningly to a sentence of reported speech. The quip takes its name from Tom Swift, a boy's adventure hero created by the prolific American writer Edward L. Stratemeyer. Under the pseudonym Victor Appleton, he published a series of books featuring the young Tom Swift. Tom Swift rarely passed a remark without a qualifying adverb as "Tom added eagerly" or "Tom said jokingly". The play on words discussed here arose as a pastiche of this, coming to be known by the term Tom Swifty.

Here are some fun examples ~

  1. "The doctor had to remove my left ventricle," said Tom half-heartedly.
  2. "Your Honour, you're crazy!" said Tom judgementally.
  3. "Elvis is dead," said Tom expressly.
  4. "I swallowed some of the glass from that broken window," Tom said painfully.
  5. "My garden needs another layer of mulch," Tom repeated.
  6. "You must be my host," Tom guessed.
  7. "I've only enough carpet for the hall and landing," said Tom with a blank stare.
  8. "Don't let me drown in Egypt!" pleaded Tom, deep in denial.
  9. "I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank.
  10. "I love hot dogs," said Tom with relish.
  11. "There seems to be at least one blood-sucking insect in every outhouse," said Tom aloofly.
  12. "I have to keep this fire alight," Tom bellowed.
  13. "Rowing hurts my hands," said Tom callously.

I can only imagine that looking for the Wellerisms in these Jr. Adventure books made reading the series all the more enjoyable for the boys of the 1950's! There are over 500 Tom Swifties listed on the fun-with-words.com website if you would like to read more. This is also where I got all my info here.

And if you want to review the other words games I've done, such as oxymorons, pleonasms and idioms, click HERE!

And, if you can think of any on your own, "Congratulations; you graduated," said Betsy diplomatically. Get it? haha. :)

57 comments:

  1. I've never heard of wellerisms. Are you allowed to pluralize that? Can you make plural into an infinitive like that? I could use a dictionary (even online) and find out but I'm too lazy. Can you tell I'm a math person and not a word person?

    But...I did enjoy reading the lesson in the wellerism and all your examples.

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  2. These are really cool. I am too tired to think...but I enjoyed yours..Come say hi :D

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  3. "Gosh! I remember those," Skip said retrospectively.

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  4. i think i just groaned inwardly.

    i read tom swift when i was a younger lad...

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  5. Do I ever come to your blog, and not learn something? No. You are wonderful with words and word games and I love to read them.

    This was a very fun read.

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  6. Tryin' to think of any series books that weren't plagued by these Wellerisms, wot? Tom lives on ( from time to time )in the updated Annie comic strip...what?

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  7. Oh, you are so clever, Betsy. I have never heard of Tom Swift or Wellerisms but now I know what they are called, but the sad thing is, I honestly can't think of one. How very dull of me.

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  8. Now that is fun! I learned about wellerisms today!

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  9. The Tom Swifties took me back to the days when my boys were in Cub Scouts. The magazine they received had several pages of jokes sent in by readers and there were ALWAYS horrible puns among them!

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  10. Kayren ~ I think you can pluralize it. Maybe it's welleri..long 'i'. haha. Caboose would probably enjoy those books. Has he read any?

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  11. Brian and Skip ~ nice ones! ..she said admiringly. :)

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  12. Kathy ~ some are pretty horrible LOL! They're funniest when you're feeling tired and silly. (or when you're 12 years old! ha!)

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  13. It's no good, I can't think of any ...... said Alan thoughtlessly

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  14. Alan ~ that was the best one yet! LOL!

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  15. "Thanks for introducing me to wellerisms" said Stephanie appreciatively.

    Love this one..."I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank.

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  16. I remember hearing a few of these growing up, but never knew they were part of a whole collection. They are hysterical. I might be able to come up with one, after more coffee!

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  17. "I may never forgive you for coming up with such an enviable post," The Silver Fox admitted grudgingly.

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  18. Very good. I enjoyed reading that.

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  19. That was a lot of fun. I needed to read that today for a pick me up from out of a very deep hole. I am smiling again.

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  20. Glad to help, LD ~ hope it's nothing too serious! :)

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  21. "Two scoops of chocolate!" I screamed. (get it? heheheh)

    Hey... like the new profile photos. Rowrrr...

    "Rhinos are cool," JeffScape said hornily.

    HAHAHAHAH! Okay, no more lewdness. It's been rather strange day.

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  22. Jeffscape ~ haha...you aren't going to believe this, but I really was eating chocolate icecream when I read this! ;)

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  23. i have nothing to off, mouse said fruitlessly.

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  24. Mmm ~ if you had phrased that "Mmm said, dully" ...you would have had one! :)

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  25. Caboose hasn't read these. Honestly, I would have never thought of them. "I'll have to check one out if I can ever get to the library," I said taxingly.

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  26. "I can't think of anything to write," said Tracie musingly.

    (I love these!)

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  27. "Hey, who's that beautiful woman in the mirror?" wondered Betsy reflectively.

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  28. "The Professor taught me that little trick!" Betsy said studiously.

    or

    "Yeah, I'd do that when hell freezes over!" Betsy said icily.

    lol....

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  29. "I wish I'd written this post on my blog," David said foxily.

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  30. "It probably would have been even better if you wrote it!", Betsy said respectfully.

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  31. "That Betsy! What a doll," said David beautifully.

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  32. "Thanks Silver. You're as sweet as honey!" Betsy said sappily. :)

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  33. "Any time, baby!" David replied childishly.

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  34. hahaha..."You're cracking me up!" She laughed, egging him on.

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  35. "I'll see if I can come up with another one, after I finish this cigarette!" he said breathlessly. [ducks]

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  36. "I'll have a cup of tea while I wait.", she brewed.

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  37. "Really? I'm more in the mood for some chocolate milk!" he answered quickly.

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  38. "Here, you need a napkin!" she answered dryly.

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  39. "I was wondering if you'd be able to drum up another one," said David, without missing a beat.

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  40. "I thought you were supposed to be doing laundry!" she said in her own bubbly way.

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  41. "I can't. I'm out of detergent," said David, without cheer.

    (That's not really true, but it fit, didn't it?)

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  42. "You humor is like a shot in the arm!" she injected.

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  43. "That one was good enough to have been in Tom's series!" he exclaimed swiftly.

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  44. "Oh, gosh, I need a drink!" she whined.

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  45. "Oh, dear. Do you feel like you're boxed in?" she said squarely.

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  46. "Are you crying 'uncle'?" she said relatively.

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  47. "Oh, that was foul!" she chirped.

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  48. "Sorry for disappearing. I was ripping into some other bloggers on their blogs!" David said, feeling torn.

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  49. "Well, we all know how fun you are online!" she said wirely.

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  50. "Thanks! I've been commenting on Pat's blog, for one. So has Orson!" David said cattily.

    "But I really do have to go run to do some laundry!" he said, panting.

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  51. "Alright. All good things must come to an end." She concluded.

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  52. So you left me waiting to go rhyme with Pat? I guess you let the Cat out of the bag!? She said openly.

    ...no pun intended. :)

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  53. "You're such a doll," he said, toying with her.

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  54. "I was also 'playing editor' for a fellow writer on his blog," David professed.

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  55. Hi - I know that this was posted a while ago, but you might be interested in my forthcoming novel "Death and Mr Pickwick", which explores the origins and history of The Pickwick Papers - the novel explores, among many things, the origins of Wellerisms. These bizarre phrases were used in nineteenth-century London by an actor called Sam Vale, though he wasn't the first to use them - Wellerisms are ancient, though they were not given a name until used by Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers. Once Sam Weller used them, they spread like wildfire across London. Anyway, my novel will be published in May by Random House (in the UK) and in June by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (in the USA). You can find out more at: www.deathandmrpickwick.com Best wishes Stephen Jarvis

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