Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Double entendre is a figure of speech similar to the pun, in which a spoken phrase can be understood in either of two ways. The first, literal meaning is an innocent one, while the second meaning is usually indecently sexual. Although a French term, the French generally say double entente or double sens for such phrases. Many double entendres are sexual in nature. For example, consider the sentence "If a woman asks a man for an example of double entendre, he should always try to give it to her." This double meaning has the innocent meaning to give her the example, and the second sexual meaning intending for the man to try and have sex with her. In the English comic book Viz there runs a cartoon strip entitled "Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres", about a youngster who enjoys double entendres. Immediately after hearing someone crack a double entendre, Finbarr knowingly sniggers "Fnarr fnarr!" Fnarr has since become a popular exclaimation in England. Similarly, the cartoon characters Beavis and Butthead frequently note double entrendres of the most sophomoric kind with such comments as, "huh-huh, he said wood; huh-huh". See also Spoonerism. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.