A double entendre (French pronunciation: [dublɑ̃tɑ̃dʁə]) or adianoeta ^[1] is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué, inappropriate, or ironic.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a double entendre as especially being used to "convey an indelicate meaning". It is often used to express potentially offensive opinions without the risks of explicitly doing so.

A double entendre may exploit puns to convey the second meaning. Double entendres tend to rely more on multiple meanings of words, or different interpretations of the same primary meaning; they often exploit ambiguity and may be used to introduce it deliberately in a text.

Structure

A person who is not familiar with the hidden or alternative meaning of a sentence may fail to detect its innuendos, aside from observing that others find it humorous for no apparent reason. Perhaps because it is not offensive to those who don't recognize it, innuendo is often used in sitcoms and other comedy considered suitable for children, who may enjoy the comedy while oblivious to its second meanings. Innuendo can also be used to make socially acceptable sexual humor. Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing used this ploy to present a surface level description of the play as well as a pun on the Elizabethan use of "nothing" as slang for sexual relations.^{[ citation needed]}

A triple entendre is a rare variation of a double entendre where a phrase can be understood in any of three ways. It was popular in Europe, prior to World War I.  ;-) An example of this would be the cover of the 1981 Rush album Moving Pictures. The title could be read to mean transporting or relocating wall paintings or photographs by a moving crew, pictures that invoke emotional (moving) reactions, or a literal "moving picture" (i.e. a film or movie). In fact the original back cover of the LP showed a film crew shooting a crowd being moved by movers moving moving pictures.

Comedian Benny Hill, whose television shows included straightforward sexual gags, has been jokingly called "the master of the single entendre". ^[2]

Etymology

The expression comes from French double = "double" and entendre = "to mean", "to understand". Although it was a French expression when adopted into English, and although both words are part of modern French, their use together has disappeared in modern French. Double retains the same meaning in French, but entendre translates nowadays to "hear". French refers to such phrases with the term double sens (literally "double meaning"). ^[3] Another French variation is sous-entendre (verb) or sous-entendu (noun), which means literally "under meaning", that is, with a hidden meaning under the primary meaning.

The term "adianoeta" comes from Greek ἀδιανόητα and means "unintelligible". ^[4]

Usage

Literature

Examples of sexual innuendo and double-entendre occur in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (14th century), in which the Wife of Bath's tale is laden with double entendres. The most famous of these may be her use of the word "queynte" to describe both domestic duties (from the homonym "quaint") and genitalia ("queynte" being a root of the modern English word cunt.)

The title of Sir Thomas More's 1516 fictional work Utopia is a double entendre because of the pun between two Greek-derived words that would have identical pronunciation: with his spelling, it means "no place" ^[5] (as echoed later in Samuel Butler's later Erewhon); spelled as the rare word Eutopia, it is pronounced the same ^[6] by English-speaking readers, but has the meaning "good place."

The poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley published in 1818, is an example of ironic double entendre. Looking upon the shattered ruins of a colossus, the traveler reads:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

The speaker believes that the king's sole intended meaning of "despair" was that nobody could hope to equal his achievements, but the traveler seems to find another meaning—that the reader might "despair" to find that all beings are mortal, that king and peasant alike inevitably share oblivion in the sands of time. ^[7] This portrayal of an unintended double entendre exemplifies a case of the double entendre as the poet's figure of speech.

In Homer's "The Odyssey", when Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, he tells the Cyclops that his name is Nobody. When Odysseus attacks the Cyclops later that night and stabs him in the eye, the Cyclops runs out of his cave, yelling to the other cyclopes that "Nobody's hurt me!", which leads the other cyclopes to take no action, allowing Odysseus and his men to escape.

Similarly, in The Neverending Story, when Atreyu meets Gmork, a werewolf, he tells him that he is Nobody. Gmork responds, "If that's the case, then Nobody has heard me and Nobody has come to me, and Nobody is speaking to me in my last hour." Atreyu replies, "Can Nobody free you from your chain?" Shocked, Gmork says, "You'd really set a hungry werewolf free? Do you know what that means? Nobody would be safe from me." Atreyu says to Gmork, "But I'm Nobody. Why should I be afraid of you?" ^[8]

Stage performances

Shakespeare frequently used innuendos in his plays. Indeed, Sir Toby in Twelfth Night is seen saying, in reference to Sir Andrew's hair, that "it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off;" the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet says that her husband had told Juliet when she was learning to walk that "Yea, dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;", or is told the time by Mercutio: "for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon"; and in Hamlet, Hamlet torments Ophelia with a series of sexual puns, viz. "country" (similar to " cunt").

In the UK, starting in the 19th century, Victorian morality disallowed innuendo in the theatre as being unpleasant, particularly for the ladies in the audience. In music hall songs, on the other hand, innuendo remained very popular. Marie Lloyd's song 'She Sits Among The Cabbages And Peas' is an example of this. (Music hall in this context is to be compared with Variety, the one common, low-class and vulgar; the other demi-monde, worldly and sometimes chic.) In the 20th century there began to be a bit of a crackdown on lewdness, including some prosecutions. It was the job of the Lord Chamberlain to examine the scripts of all plays for indecency. Nevertheless, some comedians still continued to get away with it. Max Miller, famously, had two books of jokes, a white book and a blue book, and would ask his audience which book they wanted to hear stories from. If they chose the blue book, it was their own choice and he could feel reasonably secure he was not offending anyone.

Television shows

In Britain, innuendo humour did not transfer to radio or cinema at first, but eventually and progressively it began to filter through from the late 1950s and 1960s on. Particularly significant in this respect were the Carry On series of films and the BBC radio series Round the Horne, although this humour is carried because of the apparent "nonsense" language that the protagonists use but in fact are having a "rude" conversation in Polari (gay slang). Spike Milligan, writer of The Goon Show, remarked that a lot of blue innuendo came from servicemen's jokes, which most of the cast understood (they all had been soldiers) and many of the audience understood, but which passed over the heads of most of the BBC producers and directors, most of whom were "Officer class."

In 1968, the office of the Lord Chamberlain ceased to have responsibility for censoring live entertainment, after the Theatres Act 1968. By the 1970s innuendo had become widely pervasive across much of the British media, including sitcoms and radio comedy, such as I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Round the Horne. For example, in the 1970s series Are You Being Served?, Mrs. Slocombe made frequent references to her "pussy", apparently unaware of how easily her statement could be misinterpreted, such as "It's a wonder I'm here at all, you know. My pussy got soakin' wet. I had to dry it out in front of the fire before I left." Someone unfamiliar with sexual slang might find this statement funny simply because of the references to her pussy cat, whereas generally a viewer would be expected to detect the innuendo ("pussy" is sexual slang for vulva).

The title of reality television show, The Biggest Loser, has double entendres. The title could be interpreted in many different ways; "biggest" could be interpreted as meaning obese, or referring to the amount that they are a "loser". Also, the "loser" could be interpreted as meaning they lose a lot of weight, or it could be more subtly derogatorily implying that they are socially deficient.

In The Real Housewives of New York City, a reality television show on Bravo, the fourth episode in the second season features Countess LuAnn de Lesseps discussing with Bethenny Frankel, the title of her upcoming book on etiquette entitled Class with the Countess. The women deem the title as a double entendre, since it can be seen as a lesson on etiquette with the Countess but also the title pays heed to the social class of the Countess, as she is a stickler for etiquette and manners and indeed has a social order status as the Countess.

On the Sky Sports television show Soccer AM there is a section called Team Mates in which they interview a player from a club within the English Football League questions about their team mates. The question that the interview normally ends on is "...And who is the longest in the showers?" This can be read as a straight question in generally asking who spends the most time washing but it can also be seen as a question that is asking who has the longest penis. This can be seen by some player's reactions to the question, normally laughing.

Another widely known reference is frequently made by the Private First Class Lavernius Tucker, who is a main fictional character in the machinima science fiction comedy video series Red vs. Blue. Whenever Tucker hears a double entendre, he says his catchphrase, "Bow Chicka Bow Wow!", mimicking the musical style of 70's background porno music films.

Shows like The Office does not hide the fact of adding sexual innuendos into the script, usually lines for character Michael Scott who often says the phase "That's What She Said" either to lighten the mood of the office or after a sex pun has been said. Another television show that is filled with sexual innuendos and puns is Family Guy, especially with the character of Glenn Quagmire. Another Seth MacFarlane show called American Dad! had an episode in the 3rd Season called " Tearjerker", a spoof of James Bond movies, in which the main characters of the show assumed different roles. One main character called " Francine Smith" became "Sexpun T'Come", as a Bond girl type character like Pussy Galore.

2005 CSI episode 15 in season 5, "King Baby" Catherine is told by Ecklie that Grissom would be in charge of the scene. Later when Ecklie talkes to Catherine, trying to tell her it was just due to the high profile nature of the victim. Catherine says, "I smell crap" and finds feces only feet in front of Ecklie. Crap is the Double entendre since it can mean feces or someone's use of words and lies.

Movies

Bawdy double entendres, such as "I'm the kinda girl who works for Paramount by day, and Fox all night", and "I feel like a million tonight—but only one at a time", were the trademark of Mae West, in her early-career vaudeville performances as well as in her later plays and movies.

Double entendres are popular in modern movies, as a way to conceal adult humor in a work aimed at general audiences. The James Bond films are rife with such humour. For example, in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), when Bond is disturbed by the telephone while in bed with a Danish girl, he explains to Moneypenny that he is busy brushing up on a little Danish. Moneypenny responds in kind by pointing out that Bond was known as "a cunning linguist", a play on the word " cunnilingus". This was further parodied in Austin Powers in Goldmember: "You may be a cunning linguist, but I'm a master debater!" (the latter sounds like " masturbator", and the former sounds like " cunnilingus"). The James Bond movie Goldfinger, the female characters' names, Pussy Galore and Holly Goodhead, are more obvious examples of a double entendre.

Also, in The World Is Not Enough, when the well-endowed female assistant of the Swiss banker asks Bond ,"Would you like to check my figures?", referring to the receipt of payment, Mr. Bond replies slyly, "Oh, I'm sure they're perfectly rounded."

ET Michael's friend teases Elliott saying the alien came from "your anus" which sounds like Uranus

Music

Double entendres are very common in the titles and lyrics of pop songs. To cite only a few examples:

• The title of the song "Big Balls in Cowtown", a song by Hoyle Nix, and its more modern inspired cousin "Big Balls", by the Australian rock band AC/DC, playing on the two meanings of "balls": social dance events and testicles.
• "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" by The Bellamy Brothers, which is based on an old Groucho Marx quote, where the person being talked to is asked, by one interpretation if they would be offended, and by the other, if they would press their body against the person doing the talking.
• The title of the Blink-182 album " Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" is a double entendre relying on different interpretations of the final word, which could also be understood as "jack it", a dysphemism for masturbation.
• The title of the song " If U Seek Amy" by Britney Spears, a double entendre that relies on it sounding like " F-U-C-K me".
• The Notorious B.I.G. routinely used double entendre in his raps. For example, in the song "Going back to Cali" he writes "Recognize a real Don when you see Juan (one)" meaning both a "Mafia Don" and a " Don Juan."
• The song " Legs" by ZZ Top, also uses double entendre, for example, "she got legs, she knows how to use them." The first meaning is obvious sexual attraction, the second underlying meaning, she has strength and confidence.
• The song "Kissing Willie" by Jethro Tull extensively uses double entendre as the premise for the whole song. "Willie" being both a name and British slang for a penis, "Kissing Willie" being a double entendre for fellatio.
• Metallica song Unforgiven II the II in the lyrics is too, meaning also, "and so your unforgiven too". Also S&M - an abbreviation of 'Symphony and Metallica' as well as a play-on-words for sadomasochism
• The song " Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" by Bob Dylan repeats the line "Everybody must get stoned," meaning both the get stoned as form of punishmentand to get stoned with narcotics

Social interaction

Double entendres often arise in the replies given to inquiries. For example, the response to the question "What is the difference between ignorance and apathy?" would be "I don't know and I don't care". The dual meaning arises in the iteration (though from a first-person perspective) of the definitions of both terms within the reply ("I don't know" defining ignorance, and "I don't care" defining apathy). Of course, in the more obvious sense, the reply may simply indicate that the replier neither knows nor cares about what the difference is between the two words.

Another instance of double entendre involves responding to a seemingly innocuous sentence that could have a sexual meaning with the phrase " that's what she said". An example might be if one were to say "It's too big to fit in my mouth" upon being served a large sandwich, someone else could say "That's what she said," as if the statement were a reference to oral sex. This phrase was used in the " Wayne's World" Saturday Night Live skits, and was a recurring joke–albeit in a mocking way–on the US sitcom The Office. The phrase "... as the actress said to the bishop" can be used in a similar way.

Furthermore, the example could be used of a student speaking to his recently retired teacher. While the two are discussing the replacement teacher, the student says, "I didn't know how much I liked you until this year." This statement could be interpreted as the student saying that he realizes how much he appreciates his former teacher or as a complaint about the new teacher.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Double entendres.

Look up double entendre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Albur
• Coincidence
• Doublespeak
• Euphemism
• Paraprosdokian
• Pun
• Spoonerism
• Word play

References

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