Definition:
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase can be understood in two ways, especially when one meaning is risqué. Double entendre is sometimes hyphenated and sometimes italicized. See also:
Etymology:
From the French (now obsolete), "double" + "understand" or "mean"Examples and Observations:
- "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."
(Mae West) - "While many mento songs are about traditional 'folksong' subjects, from political commentary to simple day-to-day life, a disproportionately large number of the songs are 'bawdy songs,' often featuring poorly-veiled (and delightfully funny) sexual double-entendres. Popular mento songs include references to 'Big Bamboo,' 'Juicy Tomatoes,' 'Sweet Watermelon,' and so on."
(Megan Romer, "Jamaican Mento Music 101," About.com World Music) - Mrs. Slocombe: Before we go any further, Mr. Rumbold, Miss Brahms and I would like to complain about the state of our drawers. They're a positive disgrace.
Mr. Rumbold: Your what, Mrs. Slocombe?
Mrs. Slocombe: Our drawers. They're sticking. And it's always the same in damp weather.
Mr. Rumbold: Really.
Mrs. Slocombe: Miss Brahms could hardly shift hers at all just now.
Mr. Lucas: No wonder she was late.
Mrs. Slocombe: They sent a man who put beeswax on them, but that made them worse.
Mr. Rumbold: I'm not surprised.
Miss Brahms: I think they need sandpapering.
(Mollie Sugden, Nicholas Smith, Trevor Bannister, and Wendy Richard in Are You Being Served?) - "It's impossible to ignore the prominence of water as a primary motif in black spiritual culture--from the debilitated Gospel pleas to be 'washed white as snow' to the rebellion-coded double entendre 'wade in the water,' which referenced both baptism and escape routes from slavery."
(William Jelani Cobb, To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, NYU Press, 2006)
Pronunciation: DUB-el an-TAN-dra
Also Known As: double-entendre, innuendo
