homonymes

Updated: May 14, 2025

In those which possess a great number of homonymes, that is, words possessing the same, or nearly the same, sound, though quite different in their derivation and signification, it is almost more difficult to avoid, than to fall on such a verbal play. It has, however, been feared, lest a door might be opened to puerile witticism, if they were not rigorously proscribed.

- The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04 : Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes

In those which possess a great number of homonymes, that is, words possessing the same, or nearly the same, sound, though quite different in their derivation and signification, it is almost more difficult to avoid, than to fall on such a verbal play. It has, however, been feared, lest a door might be opened to puerile witticism, if they were not rigorously proscribed.

August Wilhelm Schlegel - Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature