Calambur: examples and definition

In this lesson from a TEACHER we want to explain to you what one of the literary figures funniest and most interesting Spanish: the calambur. Although you have never heard its name or it sounds like foreign language, the truth is that you have used it more than once. Many writers, poets or just plain jokers use it frequently with the aim of provoking laughter or showing a double meaning. Keep reading this lesson and you will know the definition of calambur with examples.

Index

1. What is calambur: simple definition
2. Francisco de Quevedo the king of calambur
3. Examples of calambur today

First of all, we must point out that calambur is a Literary figureIt is used a lot more than you might think. Surely you remember a riddle from when you were a child in which your answer appeared within the sentence of the same. A calambur is that, a play on words that modifies a sentence to give it a double meaning. We show you a very simple example that will make you quickly realize what a calambur is:

A father and son are seated on this bench. The father's name is Juan and the son's I have already told you.

In this riddle that we have all formulated as children we find written the name by which we are asked that it is none other than that of Esteban. In this case, we find a cramp in which the words Estebanco, make up the son's name.

Therefore, a calambur is based on the regrouping different words or syllables with the aim of providing a new meaning to the sentence and in many occasions to disguise a double meaning of it.

How to create a calambur

As we have already seen, a calambur is formed by regrouping different syllables or words. In other words, takes advantage of paronymy, homonymy or polysemy that they have some terms in our language to be able to give them a new ambiguous and ironic meaning.

Although we can find it both orally and in writing, the second of them will make us identify it a lot more easily since we can appreciate at a glance the syllables that come together to form a new sense.

Where the calambur is born

The origin of this word game is not clear and some authors state that it is of French origin, others that it is Arabic and others that it is a word of Italian origin. This last thesis is the most widespread, since it indicates that it can come from the expression calamo will mock, which in Italian means tease with pen.

If we look at its meaning, we can point out that it adapts perfectly to the role that the calambur fulfills in the literature.

Image: Examples You'll come

Although many authors have made use of this play on words or literary figure, without a doubt, Francisco de Quevedo is one of its maximum representatives. During the Golden Age of Spanish Literature, irony and criticism were very present in literary creation, so the calambur was presented as an ideal figure to be able to write about everything that could not be verbalized.

Quevedo would go down in history for one of his most famous calambur in which he dared to insult the queen herself. To put us in situation, the story goes that Quevedo was challenged to insult Queen Isabel de Borbón (wife of Carlos IV) without her noticing it. To do this, the writer showed him a white carnation and a red rose and through this cramp he managed to make fun of his limp:

Between the white carnation and the red rose, your majesty choose

In this case, what Quevedo did was group in the verb pick, two words: es and lame with the aim of being able to express it to the queen without her finding out about her.

Another of the most important is the one that we can find in one of its poems in which the wedding of two slaves is related, the verse reads like this:

She a slave and he a slave who wants to kneel in the middle

Can you find the calambur? Surely yes.

Image: Slideplayer

At present the calambur it is widely used and you can find it in a multitude of written texts, as well as in oral speeches. The achildren's divines They use it very frequently as a literary resource, but it is also very common to find it in comedy shows; like the ones starring, a few years ago by the duo Foam, in which his characters had such hilarious names as: Aitor Tilla, Aitor Menta…. and a long etcetera of calambur.

So that you do not stay with the desire and you can have a fun time we are going to show you some examples of calambur:

• Gold seems silver is not. Anyone who does not guess that he is very stupid.
• Serapio Joso.
• What will it be? What will it be? that is always on the table.
• White on the inside, green on the outside, if you want me to tell you, wait.
• Will you believe it if I tell you that this is its capital? But it is not this, I tell you, if not, pray and you will know.

Have you been able to get them all right? If not, give it a second turn, sure you will find the result easily. On the other hand, if you want to continue learning more about literary figures such as calambur, be sure to visit our section on literary concepts.

If you want to read more articles similar to Calambur: examples and definition, we recommend that you enter our category of Literary concepts.

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