Wit
Wit is the ability to express ideas with quick, clever, often humorous language. It relies on verbal agility, apt associations, and concise phrasing.
Incongruity theory: A theory that explains humor through the perception of a mismatch between expectations and events or ideas. A witty line often creates humor by abruptly joining ideas that do not normally belong together.
Oscar Wilde: An Irish writer whose plays, fiction, and essays are celebrated for epigrams and social satire. Wilde’s polished paradoxes are among the most recognizable examples of literary wit.
Humor: The capacity or quality of perceiving, expressing, or responding to what is amusing. Wit is one verbal route to humor, but humor also includes nonverbal and situational comedy.
Repartee: A quick, clever reply, especially one exchanged in lively conversation. Repartee is wit used responsively, with success depending on timing as well as phrasing.
Pun: A figure of speech that exploits multiple meanings of a word or similar-sounding words for effect. Puns show how a single word choice can make wit depend on double meaning.
Jane Austen: An English novelist known for fiction that examines courtship, class, and social behavior with irony. Austen’s narrators and characters use verbal sharpness to expose manners and self-deception.
Irony: A contrast between an intended or expected meaning and the meaning conveyed or outcome produced. Irony can be deliberate and sustained without the speed or clever phrasing associated with wit.
Aphorism: A concise statement expressing a general truth or principle in memorable language. Wit can make an aphorism memorable by compressing insight into a surprising formulation.
Antithesis: A rhetorical figure that places contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel phrasing. Witty aphorisms often sharpen their point by balancing opposites in a compact sentence.
Samuel Johnson: An English writer and lexicographer whose conversation and essays were renowned for forceful intelligence. Johnson’s reported conversation exemplifies wit grounded in argument and exact phrasing.