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We need your help documenting history. » Irony From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Ironic" redirects here. For the song, see Ironic (song). For other uses, see Irony (disambiguation). Page semi-protected A stop sign ironically defaced with a plea not to deface stop signs. Irony (from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία (eirōneía), meaning "dissimulation, feigned ignorance"[1]), in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event characterized by an incongruity, or contrast, between what the expectations of a situation are and what is really the case, with a third element, that defines that what is really the case is ironic because of the situation that led to it. Irony may be divided into categories such as: verbal, dramatic, and situational. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes can emphasize one's meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.[2] Other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include dialectic and practical irony.[3] Contents [hide] 1 Definitions 2 Origin of the term 3 Types 3.1 Verbal irony 3.1.1 Verbal irony and sarcasm 3.2 Dramatic irony 3.2.1 Tragic irony 3.3 Situational irony 3.3.1 Cosmic irony (Irony of fate) 3.3.2 Historical irony 4 Use 4.1 Comic irony 4.2 Romantic irony and metafiction 4.3 Socratic irony 4.4 Irony as infinite, absolute negativity 4.5 Irony and awkwardness 5 Misuse 6 Punctuation 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Bibliography 10 External links Definitions Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says "any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same." Also, Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that "Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant." The use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage says: Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension.[4] The term is sometimes used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to "every trivial oddity" in situations where there is no double audience.[4] An example of such usage is: Sullivan, whose real interest was, ironically, serious music, which he composed with varying degrees of success, achieved fame for his comic opera scores rather than for his more earnest efforts.[5] The American Heritage Dictionary's secondary meaning for irony: "incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs".[6] This sense, however, is not synonymous with "incongruous" but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present but also that the incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanity or folly. Thus the majority of American Heritage Dictionary's usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."[7] On this aspect, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has also: A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things. (In French ironie du sort.)[8] Origin of the term According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin.[9] According to Richard Whately: Aristotle mentions Eironeia, which in his time was commonly employed to signify, not according to the modern use of 'Irony, saying the contrary to what is meant', but, what later writers usually express by Litotes, i.e. 'saying less than is meant'.[10] The word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie. It derives from the Latin ironia and ultimately from the Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected.[11] Types A "No smoking" sign surrounded by images of a smoking Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street tube station. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics distinguishes between the following types of irony:[3] Classical irony: referring to the origins of irony in Ancient Greek comedy, and the way classical and medieval rhetoricians delineated the term. Romantic irony: The Encyclopedia states that "The most significant change in meaning took place in 1797, when Schlegel observed in his Fragments: 'there are ancient and modern poems which breathe throughout, in their entirety and in every detail, the divine breath of [irony].'" It is seen as "a consistent alternation of affirmation and negation, of exuberant emergence from oneself and self-critical retreat into oneself, of enthusiasm and skepticism." Tragic irony: The Encyclopedia says this term: "was introduced by Connop Thirlwall in 1833, who based it on a distinction among three basic types of [irony]: verbal, dialectic, and practical." Cosmic irony: "[Irony] took on a new and more comprehensive dimension with Hegel, who strongly opposed romantic [irony] because of its "annihilating" tendency, seeing in it nothing but poetic caprice." In The History of Philosophy, Hegel sensed in the "crowding of world historical affairs," in the trampling down of the "happiness of peoples, wisdom of states, and virtue of individuals," in short, in his comprehensive view of history, an ironic contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which he expressed by the phrase, "general [irony] of the world."[3] Verbal irony: The Encyclopedia states that, in this: one meaning is stated and a different, usually antithetical, meaning is intended. The [irony] of a statement often depends on context. If one looks out of his window at a rain storm and remarks to a friend, "Wonderful day, isn't it?" the contradiction between the facts and the implied description of them establishes the [irony].[3] Dramatic irony: a plot device according to which (a) the spectators know more than the protagonist; (b) the character reacts in a way contrary to that which is appropriate or wise; (c) characters or situations are compared or contrasted for ironic effects, such as parody; or (d) there is a marked contrast between what the character understands about his acts and what the play demonstrates about them.[3] A disparity of awareness between actor and observer: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not; for example when a character says to another "I'll see you tomorrow!" when the audience (but not the character) knows that the character will die before morning. It is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware. In tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. Poetic irony. The Encyclopedia says that: "during the modern period [especially], beginning with romanticism, [irony] has become inseparable from literary and poetic expression itself.[3]" Lars Elleström would add: Situational irony: The disparity of intention and result; when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect. Verbal irony According to A glossary of literary terms by Abrams and Hartman, Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. The ironic statement usually involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite, attitude or evaluation.[12] Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers. For instance, if a man exclaims, "I'm not upset!" but reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim he's not upset, it would not be verbal irony by virtue of its verbal manifestation (it would, however, be situational irony). But if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony—speakers communicate implied propositions that are intentionally contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. There are, however, examples of verbal irony that do not rely on saying the opposite of what one means, and there are cases where all the traditional criteria of irony exist and the utterance is not ironic. In a clear example from literature, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Mark Antony's speech after the assassination of Caesar appears to praise the assassins, particularly Brutus ("But Brutus says he was ambitious; / And Brutus is an honourable man"), while actually condemning them. "We're left in no doubt as to who's ambitious and who's honourable. The literal truth of what's written clashes with the perceived truth of what's meant to revealing effect, which is irony in a nutshell". [13] Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean. For instance, the following explicit similes begin with the deceptive formation of a statement that means A but that eventually conveys the meaning not A: as soft as concrete as clear as mud as pleasant as a root canal "as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake" (Kurt Vonnegut from Breakfast of Champions) The irony is recognizable in each case only by using knowledge of the source concepts (e.g., that mud is opaque, that root canal surgery is painful) to detect an incongruity. In The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket, this formulation is broken down by the construction of an ironic simile followed by a reversion of the meaning so the statement once again means A. "Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate, if the cup of hot chocolate had vinegar added to it and were placed in a refrigerator for several hours." "The day was as normal as a group of seals with wings riding around on unicycles, assuming that you lived someplace where that was very normal." Verbal irony and sarcasm A fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue regarding the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage states: Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm. This suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. The OED entry for sarcasm does not mention irony, but the irony entry reads: A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt. The Encyclopædia Britannica has "Non-literary irony is often called sarcasm"; while the Webster's Dictionary entry is: Sarcasm: 1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain. 2 a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual. Partridge in Usage and Abusage would separate the two forms of speech completely: Irony must not be confused with sarcasm, which is direct: sarcasm means precisely what it says, but in a sharp, caustic, ... manner. The psychologist Martin, in The psychology of humour, is quite clear that irony is where "the literal meaning is opposite to the intended"; and sarcasm is "aggressive humor that pokes fun".[14] He has the following examples: For irony he uses the statement "What a nice day" when it is raining. For sarcasm, he cites Winston Churchill, who is supposed to have said, when told by Bessie Braddock that he was drunk, "But I shall be sober in the morning, and you will still be ugly", as being sarcastic, while not saying the opposite of what is intended. Psychology researchers Lee and Katz (1998) have addressed the issue directly. They found that ridicule is an important aspect of sarcasm, but not of verbal irony in general. By this account, sarcasm is a particular kind of personal criticism leveled against a person or group of persons that incorporates verbal irony. For example, a woman reports to her friend that rather than going to a medical doctor to treat her cancer, she has decided to see a spiritual healer instead. In response her friend says sarcastically, "Oh, brilliant, what an ingenious idea, that's really going to cure you." The friend could have also replied with any number of ironic expressions that should not be labeled as sarcasm exactly, but still have many shared elements with sarcasm. Most instances of verbal irony are labeled by research subjects as sarcastic, suggesting that the term sarcasm is more widely used than its technical definition suggests it should be (Bryant & Fox Tree, 2002; Gibbs, 2000). Some psycholinguistic theorists (e.g., Gibbs, 2000) suggest that sarcasm ("Great idea!", "I hear they do fine work."), hyperbole ("That's the best idea I have heard in years!"), understatement ("Sure, what the hell, it's only cancer..."), rhetorical questions ("What, does your spirit have cancer?"), double entendre ("I'll bet if you do that, you'll be communing with spirits in no time...") and jocularity ("Get them to fix your bad back while you're at it.") should all be considered forms of verbal irony. The differences between these rhetorical devices (tropes) can be quite subtle and relate to typical emotional reactions of listeners, and the rhetorical goals of the speakers. Regardless of the various ways theorists categorize figurative language types, people in conversation who are attempting to interpret speaker intentions and discourse goals do not generally identify, by name, the kinds of tropes used (Leggitt & Gibbs, 2000). Dramatic irony This type of irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters. The OED has: the incongruity created when the (tragic) significance of a character's speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned; the literary device so used, orig. in Greek tragedy.[15] According to Stanton,[16] dramatic irony has three stages—installation, exploitation, and resolution (often also called preparation, suspension, and resolution) —producing dramatic conflict in what one character relies or appears to rely upon, the contrary of which is known by observers (especially the audience; sometimes to other characters within the drama) to be true. In summary, it means that the reader/watcher/listener knows something that one or more of the characters in the piece is not aware of. For example: In City Lights the audience knows that Charlie Chaplin's character is not a millionaire, but the blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) believes him to be rich.[17] In North by Northwest, the audience knows that Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is not Kaplan; Vandamm (James Mason) and his accomplices do not. The audience also knows that Kaplan is a fictitious agent invented by the CIA; Roger (initially) and Vandamm (throughout) do not.[18] In Oedipus the King, the audience knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer that he is seeking; Oedipus, Creon and Jocasta do not.[19] In Othello, the audience knows that Desdemona has been faithful to Othello, but Othello does not. The audience also knows that Iago is scheming to bring about Othello's downfall, a fact hidden from Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Roderigo.[20] In The Cask of Amontillado, the reader knows that Montresor is planning on murdering Fortunato, while Fortunato believes they are friends.[21] In The Truman Show, the viewer is aware that Truman is on a television show, but Truman himself only gradually learns this.[22] In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows that Juliet is already married to Romeo, but her family do not. Also, in the crypt, most of the other characters in the cast think Juliet is dead, but the audience knows she only took a sleeping potion. Romeo is also under the same misapprehension when he kills himself.[23] Tragic irony Tragic irony is a special category of dramatic irony. In tragic irony, the words and actions of the characters contradict the real situation, which the spectators fully realize. The Oxford English Dictionary has: the incongruity created when the (tragic) significance of a character's speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned, the literary device so used, orig. in Greek tragedy.[15] Ancient Greek drama was especially characterized by tragic irony because the audiences were so familiar with the legends that most of the plays dramatized. Sophocles' Oedipus the King provides a classic example of tragic irony at its fullest. Colebrook writes: Tragic irony is exemplified in ancient drama ... The audience watched a drama unfold, already knowing its destined outcome. ... In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, for example, 'we' (the audience) can see what Oedipus is blind to. The man he murders is his father, but he does not know it.[24] Further, Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused, not knowing that the murderer he has cursed and vowed to find is himself. Irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker's perception of paradox that arises from insoluble problems. For example, in the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged deathlike sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet stabs herself with a dagger thus killing herself. Situational irony This is a relatively modern use of the term, and describes a sharp discrepancy between the expected result and actual results in a certain situation. Lars Elleström writes: Situational irony, ... is most broadly defined as a situation where the outcome is incongruous with what was expected, but it is also more generally understood as a situation that includes contradictions or sharp contrasts,[25] For example: When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however, a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire instead directed gunfire to the president.[26][27] The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a story whose plot revolves around situational irony. Dorothy travels to a wizard and fulfills his challenging demands to go home, before discovering she had the ability to go back home all the time. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence, only to discover he is already a genius, and the Tin Woodsman longs to be capable of love, only to discover he already has a heart. The Lion, who at first appears to be a whimpering coward, turns out to be bold and fearless. The people in Emerald City believed the Wizard to be a powerful deity, only to discover that he is a bumbling, eccentric old man with no special powers at all.[27][28] In O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi", a young couple are too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair. "The double irony lies in the particular way their expectations were foiled." [29] In the ancient Indian story of Krishna, King Kamsa is told in a prophecy that a child of his sister Devaki would kill him. To prevent this, he imprisons both Devaki and her husband Vasudeva, allowing them to live only if they hand over their children as soon as they are born. He murders nearly all of them, one by one, but the seventh and eighth children, Balarama and Krishna, are saved and raised by a royal couple, Nanda and Yashoda. After the boys grow up, Krishna eventually kills Kamsa as the prophecy foretold. Kamsa's attempt to prevent the prophecy led to it becoming a reality.[30] This story is similar to those in Greek mythology. Cronus prevents his wife from raising any children, but the one who ends up defeating him is Zeus, the later King of the Gods.[31] Other similar tales in Greek Mythology include Perseus (who killed his grandfather, Acrisius by accident with a discus despite Acrisius' attempt to avert his fate), and, more famously, Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother not knowing their relationship, due to being left to die by his father to prevent that very prophecy from occurring. Cosmic irony (Irony of fate) The expression cosmic irony or "irony of fate" stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals with deliberate ironic intent. Closely connected with situational irony, it arises from sharp contrasts between reality and human ideals, or between human intentions and actual results. The resulting situation is poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended. According to Sudhir Dixit, "Cosmic irony is a term that is usually associated with [Thomas] Hardy. ... There is a strong feeling of a hostile deus ex machina in Hardy's novels." In Tess of the d'Urbervilles "there are several instances of this type of irony."[32] "Justice" was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Æschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess.[33] Historical irony When history is seen through modern eyes, there often appear sharp contrasts between the way historical figures see their world's future and what actually transpires. For example, during the 1920s The New York Times repeatedly scorned crossword puzzles. In 1924, it lamented "the sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern." In 1925 it said "the question of whether the puzzles are beneficial or harmful is in no urgent need of an answer. The craze evidently is dying out fast." Today, no U.S. newspaper is more closely identified with the crossword than The New York Times.[34] In a more tragic example of historical irony, what people now refer to as "The First World War" was called by H.G. Wells "The war that will end war",[35] which soon became "The war to end war" and "The War to End All Wars", and this became a widespread truism, almost a cliché. Historical irony is therefore a subset of cosmic irony, but one in which the element of time is bound to play a role. Another example could be that of the Vietnam War, where in the 1960s the U.S. attempted to stop the Viet Cong (Viet Minh) taking over South Vietnam. However, it is an often ignored fact that, in 1941, the U.S. originally supported the Viet Minh in its fight against Japanese occupation.[36] In the introduction to The Irony of American History, Andrew Bacevich writes: After 9/11, the Bush administration announced its intention of bringing freedom and democracy to the people of the Middle East. Ideologues within the Bush administration persuaded themselves that American power, adroitly employed, could transform that region ... The results speak for themselves.[37] Gunpowder was, according to prevailing academic consensus, discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality.[38] Historical irony also includes inventors killed by their own creations, such as William Bullock—unless, due to the nature of the invention, the risk of death was always known and accepted, as in the case of Otto Lilienthal, who was killed by flying a glider of his own devising. In certain kinds of situational or historical irony, a factual truth is highlighted by some person's complete ignorance of it or his belief in its opposite. However, this state of affairs does not occur by human design. In some religious contexts, such situations have been seen as the deliberate work of Divine Providence to emphasize truths and to taunt humans for not being aware of them when they could easily have been enlightened (this is similar to human use of irony). Such ironies are often more evident, or more striking, when viewed retrospectively in the light of later developments which make the truth of past situations obvious to all. Other prominent examples of outcomes now seen as poignantly contrary to expectation include: In the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling in 1856, the United States Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment barred any law that would deprive a slaveholder of his property, such as his slaves, upon the incidence of migration into free territory. So, in a sense, the Supreme Court used the Bill of Rights to deny rights to slaves. Also, chief justice Taney hoped that the decision would resolve the slavery issue, but instead it helped cause the American Civil War.[39] In the Kalgoorlie (Australia) gold rush of the 1890s, large amounts of the little-known mineral calaverite (gold telluride) were ironically identified as fool's gold. These mineral deposits were used as a cheap building material, and for the filling of potholes and ruts. When several years later the mineral was identified, there was a minor gold rush to excavate the streets.[40] John F. Kennedy's last conversation was ironic in light of events which followed seconds later. During the motorcade in Dallas, in response to Mrs. Connolly's comment, "Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you," Kennedy replied, "That's very obvious." Immediately after, he was mortally wounded.[41] In 1974, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had to recall 80,000 of its own lapel buttons promoting "toy safety", because the buttons had sharp edges, used lead paint, and had small clips that could be broken off and subsequently swallowed.[42] Introducing cane toads to Australia to control the cane beetle not only failed to control the pest, but introduced, in the toads themselves, a very much worse pest. This irony is exemplified by the song There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, in which the lady swallows a fly, and then swallows a spider to catch the fly, and so on with larger and larger animals, until she dies. Kudzu—a vine imported to the United States in the 1930s and planted all over the South at the direction of the U.S. Government to prevent soil erosion. Instead of preventing erosion, it climbs and chokes native trees and plants, thus causing even more erosion. Also, "Long ago, the city [of Birmingham, Alabama] outlawed the livestock that would happily be eating the nutritious green kudzu leaves."[43] Use Comic irony Irony is often used in literature to produce a comic effect. This may also be combined with satire. For instance, an author may facetiously state something as a well-known fact and then demonstrate through the narrative that the fact is untrue. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice begins with the proposition "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." In fact, it soon becomes clear that Austen means the opposite: women (or their mothers) are always in search of, and desperately on the lookout for, a rich single man to make a husband. The irony deepens as the story promotes this romance and ends in a double marriage proposal. "Austen's comic irony emerges out of the disjunction between Elizabeth's overconfidence (or pride) in her perceptions of Darcy and the narrator's indications that her views are in fact partial and prejudicial."[44] "The Third Man is a film that features any number of eccentricities, each of which contributes to the film's perspective of comic irony as well as its overall cinematic self-consciousness."[45] Writing about performances of Shakespeare's Othello in apartheid South Africa, Robert Gordon suggests: "Could it be that black people in the audience ... may have viewed as a comic irony his audacity and naïvety in thinking he could pass for white."[46] Romantic irony and metafiction Romantic irony is "an attitude of detached scepticism adopted by an author towards his or her work, typically manifesting in literary self-consciousness and self-reflection". This conception of irony originated with the German Romantic writer and critic Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel.[47] Joseph Dane writes "From a twentieth-century perspective, the most crucial area in the history of irony is that described by the term romantic irony." He discusses the difficulty of defining romantic irony: "But what is romantic irony? A universal type of irony? The irony used by romantics? or an irony envisioned by the romantics and romanticists?" He also describes the arguments for and against its use.[48] Referring to earlier self-conscious works such as Don Quixote and Tristram Shandy, Douglas Muecke points particularly to Peter Weiss's 1964 play, "Marat/Sade". This work is a play within a play set in a lunatic asylum, in which it is difficult to tell whether the players are speaking only to other players or also directly to the audience. When The Herald says, "The regrettable incident you've just seen was unavoidable indeed foreseen by our playwright", there is confusion as to who is being addressed, the "audience" on the stage or the audience in the theatre. Also, since the play within the play is performed by the inmates of a lunatic asylum, the theatre audience cannot tell whether the paranoia displayed before them is that of the players, or the people they are portraying. Muecke notes that, "in America, Romantic irony has had a bad press", while "in England ... [it] is almost unknown."[49] However, in a book entitled English Romantic Irony, Anne Mellor, referring to Byron, Keats, Carlyle, Coleridge and Lewis Carroll, writes, "Romantic irony is both a philosophical conception of the universe and an artistic program. Ontologically, it sees the world as fundamentally chaotic. No order, no far goal of time, ordained by God or right reason, determines the progression of human or natural events." Furthermore, Of course, romantic irony itself has more than one mode. The style of romantic irony varies from writer to writer. ... But however distinctive the voice, a writer is a romantic ironist if and when his or her work commits itself enthusiastically both in content and form to a hovering or unresolved debate between a world of merely man-made being and a world of ontological becoming.[50] Similarly, metafiction is "Fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (esp. naturalism) and narrative techniques."[51] It is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, thereby exposing the fictional illusion. Gesa Giesing writes that "the most common form of metafiction is particularly frequent in Romantic literature. The phenomenon is then referred to as Romantic Irony." Giesing notes that "There has obviously been an increased interest in metafiction again after World War II."[52] For examples, Patricia Waugh quotes from several works at the top of her chapter headed "What is metafiction?". These include: "The thing is this./ That of all the several ways of beginning a book ... I am confident my own way of doing it is best" - Tristram Shandy "gently caress all this lying look what I am trying to write about is writing" - Albert Angelo "Since I've started this story, I've gotten boils ..." - The death of the novel and other stories by Ronald Sukenick[53] Additionally, The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction refers to John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman:[54] For the first twelve chapters ... the reader has been able to immerse him or herself in the story, enjoying the kind of 'suspension of disbelief ' required of realist novels ... what follows is a remarkable act of metafictional 'frame-breaking'. Chapter 13 notoriously begins: I do not know. This story I am telling is all imagination. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind. ... if this is a novel, it cannot be a novel in the modern sense. Socratic irony Main article: Socratic method This is "The dissimulation of ignorance practised by Socrates as a means of confuting an adversary".[55] Socrates would pretend to be ignorant of the topic under discussion, to draw out the inherent nonsense in the arguments of his interlocutors. The Chambers Dictionary defines it as "a means by which a questioner pretends to know less than a respondent, when actually he knows more". Zoe Williams of The Guardian wrote: "The technique [of Socratic irony], demonstrated in the Platonic dialogues, was to pretend ignorance and, more sneakily, to feign credence in your opponent's power of thought, in order to tie him in knots."[56] A more modern example of Socratic irony can be seen on the American crime fiction television film series, Columbo. The character Lt. Columbo is seemingly naïve and incompetent. His untidy appearance adds to this fumbling illusion. As a result, he is underestimated by the suspects in murder cases he is investigating. With their guard down and their false sense of confidence, Lt. Columbo is able to solve the cases leaving the murderers feeling duped and outwitted.[57] Irony as infinite, absolute negativity Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and others, see irony, such as that used by Socrates, as a disruptive force with the power to undo texts and readers alike.[58] The phrase itself is taken from Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics, and is applied by Kierkegaard to the irony of Socrates. This tradition includes 19th-century German critic and novelist Friedrich Schlegel ("On Incomprehensibility"), Charles Baudelaire, Stendhal, and the 20th century deconstructionist Paul de Man ("The Concept of Irony"). In Kierkegaard's words, from On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates: [Socratic] irony [is] the infinite absolute negativity. It is negativity, because it only negates; it is infinite, because it does not negate this or that phenomenon; it is absolute, because that by virtue of which it negates is a higher something that still is not. The irony established nothing, because that which is to be established lies behind it...[59] Where much of philosophy attempts to reconcile opposites into a larger positive project, Kierkegaard and others insist that irony—whether expressed in complex games of authorship or simple litotes—must, in Kierkegaard's words, "swallow its own stomach". Irony entails endless reflection and violent reversals, and ensures incomprehensibility at the moment it compels speech. Similarly, among other literary critics, writer David Foster Wallace viewed the pervasiveness of ironic and other postmodern tropes as the cause of "great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists [ironies] pose terrifically vexing problems."[60] Irony and awkwardness The '90s saw an expansion of the definition of irony from "saying what one doesn't mean" into a "general stance of detachment from life in general"[61] This detachment served as a shield against the awkwardness of everyday life. Humor from that era (most notably Seinfeld) relies on the audience watching the show with some detachment from the show's typical signature awkward situations. The generation of people in the United States who grew up in the 90s (Millennials) are seen as having this same sort of detachment from serious or awkward situations in life as well. Hipsters are thought of as using irony as a shield against those same serious or genuine confrontations.[62] Misuse The words irony and ironic are often misused. Dan Shaughnessy wrote: We were always kidding about the use of irony. I maintained that it was best never to use the word because it was too often substituted for coincidence. (Alanis Morissette's song "Isn't it Ironic?" cites multiple examples of things that are patently not ironic)[63] Tim Conley cites the following: "Philip Howard assembled a list of seven implied meanings for the word "ironically", as it opens a sentence: By a tragic coincidence By an exceptional coincidence By a coincidence of no importance You and I know, of course, though other less intelligent mortals walk benighted under the midday sun Oddly enough, or it's a rum thing that Oh hell! I've run out of words to start a sentence with."[64] Punctuation Main article: Irony punctuation No agreed method for indicating irony exists, though many ideas have been suggested. For instance, an irony punctuation mark was proposed in the 1580s, when Henry Denham introduced a rhetorical question mark or percontation point which resembles a reversed question mark. This mark was also advocated by the French poet Marcel Bernhardt at the end of the 19th century to indicate irony or sarcasm. French writer Hervé Bazin suggested another pointe d'ironie: the Greek letter psi Ψ with a dot below it, while Tom Driberg recommended that ironic statements should be printed in italics that lean the other way to conventional italics..[65] See also Accismus Apophasis Auto-antonym Contradiction Double standard Hypocrisy Ironism Irony punctuation Oxymoron Paradox Post-irony Sarcasm Satire Notes Jump up ^ Liddell & Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, v. sub εἰρωνεία. Jump up ^ Muecke, DC., The Compass of Irony, Routledge, 1969. p. 80 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Preminger, A. & Brogan, T. V. F. Brogan, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, MJF Books, 1993, ISBN 9780691032719, pp. 633–635. ^ Jump up to: a b Fowler, H. W., A dictionary of modern English usage, 1926. Jump up ^ Gassner, J., Quinn, E., The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama, Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p. 358. Jump up ^ ""irony" at dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2010-12-23. Jump up ^ Quoted in The Free Dictionary under ironic: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ironic. Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary, second entry for irony Jump up ^ Encyclopædia Britannica[1] Jump up ^ Whately, R. Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 265/1 (cited in the OED entry) Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary Jump up ^ Abrams, M. H., & Harpham, G. G., A glossary of literary terms, 9th Ed., Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Jump up ^ Horberry, R., Sounds Good on Paper: How to Bring Business Language to Life, A&C Black, 2010. p. 135. [2] Jump up ^ Martin, R. A., The psychology of humor: an integrative approach, Elsevier Academic Press, 2007. p. 13. ^ Jump up to: a b Oxford English Dictionary entry for irony Jump up ^ Stanton, R., Dramatic Irony in Hawthorne's Romances, Modern Language Notes, Vol. 71, No. 6 (Jun., 1956), pp. 420–426, The Johns Hopkins University Press. Jump up ^ Clausius, C., The gentleman is a tramp: Charlie Chaplin's comedy, P. Lang, 1989, p. 104. Jump up ^ Gulino, P., Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach, Continuum, 2004, pp. 9–10. Jump up ^ Storey, I. C. and Allan, A., A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, p. 125. [3] Jump up ^ Booth, W. C., A Rhetoric of Irony, University of Chicago Press, 1974, p. 63. [4] Jump up ^ Poe, E. A., The Cask of Amontillado, The Creative Company, 2008, pp. 22–23. [5] Jump up ^ Adams, A., Parallel Lives of Jesus: A Guide to the Four Gospels, Presbyterian Publishing Corp, 2011, p. 30. [6] Jump up ^ William, J., Cliffs Complete Romeo and Juliet, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, pp. 135, 169, 181. [7] Jump up ^ Colebrook, Claire. Irony. London and New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 14. Jump up ^ Elleström, L., Divine Madness: On Interpreting Literature, Music and the Visual Arts, Bucknell University Press, 2002, p. 51. Jump up ^ The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr. by Doug Linder. 2001 Retrieved 9 September 2008. ^ Jump up to: a b Horberry, R., Sounds Good on Paper: How to Bring Business Language to Life, A&C Black, 2010. p. 138. [8] Jump up ^ Lenguazco, CD., English through movies. The wizard of Oz, Librería-Editorial Dykinson, 2005, p. 27. [9] Jump up ^ Gibbs, W. G., & Colston, H. L., Irony in Language and Thought: A Cognitive Science Reader, Routledge, 2007, p. 59. [10] Jump up ^ Shanta Rameshwar Rao, The Krishna, Orient Blackswan, 2005, p. 69 Jump up ^ Hesiod, Theogony Works and Days Testimonia, Harvard University Press, 2006, p. xxxii. Jump up ^ Dixit, S., Hardy's Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 2001, p. 182. [11] Jump up ^ Hardy, T., Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Oxford World's Classics, p. 420. Jump up ^ Wordplay Jump up ^ Wells, H.G., The war that will end war, 1914. Jump up ^ Neale, Jonathan The American War, p. 17, ISBN 1-898876-67-3. Jump up ^ Bacevich, A., in Niebuhr, R., The Irony of American History, University of Chicago Press, 2010, p. xiv. Jump up ^ Jack Kelly Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, Perseus Books Group: 2005, ISBN 0465037224, 9780465037223: pp. 2–5 Jump up ^ Fehrenbacher, D. E., Slavery, Law, and Politics : The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 90. [12] Jump up ^ Kean, S., The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, Random House, 2011, pp. 226–228. [13] Jump up ^ Last words of presidents Jump up ^ Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2007, Page B1: It Dawned on Adults After WWII: 'You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!'. Retrieved October 29, 2009. Jump up ^ Hanson, D. & Marty, E., Breaking Through Concrete: Building an Urban Farm Revival, University of California Press, 2012, p. 1. [14] Jump up ^ Ferriss, S. & Young, M., Chick Lit: The New Woman's Fiction, Routledge, 2006, p. 77. [15] Jump up ^ Jones, W. E. & Vice, S., Ethics at the Cinema, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 295.[16] Jump up ^ Gordon, R., in The Shakespearean International Yearbook: Special Section, South African Shakespeare in the Twentieth Century, Volume 9, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. p. 147.[17] Jump up ^ OED, entry under Romantic irony. Jump up ^ Dane, J. A., The Critical Mythology of Irony, University of Georgia Press, 2011, Ch. 5 [18] Jump up ^ Muecke, DC., The Compass of Irony, Routledge, 1969. pp. 178–180 Jump up ^ Mellor, A. K., English romantic irony, Harvard University Press, 1980, pp. 4, 187. [19] Jump up ^ OED, entry for metafiction. Jump up ^ Giesing, G., Metafictional Aspects in Novels by Muriel Spark, GRIN Verlag, 2004, p. 6.[20] Jump up ^ Waugh, P., Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction, Routledge, 2002, p. 1.[21] Jump up ^ Nicol, B., The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 108–109. [22] Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary under irony. Jump up ^ "Online: The Final Irony". London: Guardian. 28 June 2003. Retrieved 2010-12-23. Jump up ^ Cox, G. How to Be a Philosopher: Or How to Be Almost Certain That Almost Nothing Is Certain, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010, p. 23. Jump up ^ Kierkegaard, S, The concept of irony with continuous reference to Socrates (1841), Harper & Row, 1966, p. 278. Jump up ^ Quoted in Jump up ^ Wallace, David Foster. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction". Review of Contemporary Fiction 13 (2): 151–194. Jump up ^ Kotsko, Adam, Awkwardness., O-Books, 2010, pp. 21 Jump up ^ How to Live Without Irony Jump up ^ Shaughnessy, D., Senior Year: A Father, A Son, and High School Baseball, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, pp. 91-92. [23] Jump up ^ Conley, T., Joyces Mistakes: Problems of Intention, Irony, and Interpretation, University of Toronto Press, 2011, p. 81. [24] Jump up ^ Houston, K., Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks, W. W. Norton & Company, 2013, pp. 211-244. Bibliography Bogel, Fredric V. "Irony, Inference, and Critical Understanding." Yale Review, 503–19. Booth, Wayne C. A Rhetoric of Irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. Bryant, G. A., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2002). Recognizing verbal irony in spontaneous speech. Metaphor and Symbol, 17, 99–115. Colebrook, Claire. Irony. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. Gibbs, R. W. (2000). Irony in talk among friends. Metaphor and Symbol, 15, 5–27. Hutcheon, Linda. Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. London: Routledge, 1994. Kierkegaard, Søren. On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates. 1841; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Lavandier, Yves. Writing Drama, pages 263–315. Lee, C. J., & Katz, A. N. (1998). The differential role of ridicule in sarcasm and irony. Metaphor and Symbol, 13, 1–15. Leggitt, J., & Gibbs, R. W. (2000). Emotional reactions to verbal irony. Discourse Processes, 29(1), 1–24. Muecke, D. C. The Compass of Irony. London: Methuen, 1969. Star, William T. "Irony and Satire: A Bibliography." Irony and Satire in French Literature. Ed. University of South Carolina Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1987. 183–209. External links Look up irony in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. "The final irony"—a Guardian article about irony, use and misuse of the term Article on the etymology of Irony "Irony", by Norman D. Knox, in Dictionary of the History of Ideas (1973) "Sardonicus"—a web-resource that provides access to similes, ironic and otherwise, harvested from the web. Excerpt on dramatic irony from Yves Lavandier's Writing Drama Writing Drama has a 52-page chapter on dramatic irony (with insights on the three phases (installation-exploitation-resolution), surprise, mystery, suspense, diffuse dramatic irony, etc.) "American Irony" compared with British irony, quoting Stephen Fry American and British irony compared by Simon Pegg Modern example of ironic writing Irony definition by Baldrick (BlackAdder) Categories: ComedyHumourIronyRhetorical techniquesFictionThemeTropes by type Navigation menu Create accountLog inArticleTalkReadView sourceView history Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikimedia Shop Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Cite this page Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version Languages አማርኛ العربية Azərbaycanca Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Български Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Ирон Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Occitan Polski Português Русский Shqip Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last modified on 23 September 2014 at 17:25. 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Bee From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Bee (disambiguation). "Anthophila" redirects here. For the moth genus, see Anthophila (moth). Page semi-protected Bee Temporal range: Early Cretaceous – Recent, 100–0Ma PreЄЄOSDCPTJKPgN Honeybee landing on milkthistle02.jpg Apis mellifera (Honeybee). Scientific classification e Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Superfamily: Apoidea Clade: Anthophila Families Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Dasypodaidae Halictidae Megachilidae Meganomiidae Melittidae Stenotritidae Synonyms Apiformes Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently considered as a clade Anthophila. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families,[1] though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae. Bees have a long proboscis (a complex "tongue") that enables them to obtain the nectar from flowers. They have antennae almost universally made up of 13 segments in males and 12 in females, as is typical for the superfamily. Bees all have two pairs of wings, the hind pair being the smaller of the two; in a very few species, one sex or caste has relatively short wings that make flight difficult or impossible, but none are wingless. Tiny bee stingless bee species exist whose workers are less than 2 mm (0.079 in) long.[2] The largest bee in the world is Megachile pluto, a leafcutter bee whose females can attain a length of 39 mm (1.5"). Members of the family Halictidae, or sweat bees, are the most common type of bee in the Northern Hemisphere, though they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. The best-known bee species is the European honey bee, which, as its name suggests, produces honey, as do a few other types of bee. Human management of this species is known as beekeeping or apiculture. Bees are the favorite meal of Merops apiaster, the bee-eater bird. Other common predators are kingbirds, mockingbirds, beewolves, and dragonflies. Contents [hide] 1 Evolution 2 Eusocial and semisocial bees 2.1 Bumblebees 2.2 Stingless bees 2.3 Honey bees 2.3.1 Africanized honey bee 3 Solitary and communal bees 4 Cleptoparasitic bees 5 Nocturnal bees 6 Flight 7 Pollination 8 Bees and humans 8.1 Pollinator decline 9 See also 9.1 Regional lists 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links Evolution The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family Crabronidae, and therefore predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario has also occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the group known as "pollen wasps" also evolved from predatory ancestors. Up until recently, the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been Cretotrigona prisca in New Jersey amber and of Cretaceous age, a meliponine. A recently reported bee fossil, of the genus Melittosphex, is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees", and dates from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya).[3] Derived features of its morphology ("apomorphies") place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits ("plesiomorphies") of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), indicative of its transitional status. The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before bees first appeared. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are generally more efficient at the task than any other pollinating insect such as beetles, flies, butterflies and pollen wasps. The appearance of such floral specialists is believed to have driven the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, the bees themselves. Among living bee groups, the "short-tongued" bee family Colletidae has traditionally been considered the most "primitive", and sister taxon to the remainder of the bees. In the 21st century, however, some researchers have claimed that the Dasypodaidae is the basal group, the short, wasp-like mouthparts of colletids being the result of convergent evolution, rather than indicative of a plesiomorphic condition.[1] This subject is still under debate, and the phylogenetic relationships among bee families are poorly understood. See also: characteristics of common wasps and bees Eusocial and semisocial bees A honey bee swarm Honey bees defend against wasp attacks Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. The most advanced of these are eusocial colonies[4] found among the honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. Sociality, of several different types, is believed to have evolved separately many times within the bees. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labor within the group, then they are considered semisocial. If, in addition to a division of labor, the group consists of a mother and her daughters, then the group is called eusocial. The mother is considered the queen and the daughters are workers. These castes may be purely behavioral alternatives, in which case the system is considered "primitively eusocial" (similar to many paper wasps), and if the castes are morphologically discrete, then the system is "highly eusocial". There are many more species of primitively eusocial bees than highly eusocial bees, but they have rarely been studied. The biology of most such species is almost completely unknown. The vast majority are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. The only physical difference between queens and workers is average size, if they differ at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females (future queens, or "gynes") hibernate (called diapause). A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds. The orchid bees include a number of primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Certain species of allodapine bees (relatives of carpenter bees) also have primitively eusocial colonies, with unusual levels of interaction between the adult bees and the developing brood. This is "progressive provisioning"; a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops. This system is also seen in honey bees and some bumblebees. Highly eusocial bees live in colonies. Each colony has a single queen, many workers and, at certain stages in the colony cycle, drones. When humans provide the nest, it is called a hive. Honey bee hives can contain up to 40,000 bees at their annual peak, which occurs in the spring, but usually have fewer. Bumblebees Main article: Bumblebee Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, Bombus pratorum, et al.) are eusocial in a manner quite similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as hornets. The queen initiates a nest on her own (unlike queens of honey bees and stingless bees which start nests via swarms in the company of a large worker force). Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the nest cavity (pre-existing), and colonies are rarely perennial. Bumblebee queens sometimes seek winter safety in honey bee hives, where they are sometimes found dead in the spring by beekeepers, presumably stung to death by the honey bees. It is unknown whether any survive winter in such an environment. Bumblebees are one of the more important wild pollinators, but have declined significantly in recent decades. In the UK, two species have become nationally extinct during the last 75 years while others have been placed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan as priority species in recognition of the need for conservation action. In 2006 a new charity, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, was established to coordinate efforts to conserve remaining populations through conservation and education. In 2011, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species world-wide using the IUCN Red List criteria.[5] Stingless bees Main article: Stingless bee Stingless bees are very diverse in behavior, but all are highly eusocial. They practise mass provisioning, complex nest architecture, and perennial colonies. Honey bees An African bee Apis mellifera suspecies scutellata, extracts nectar from a flower as pollen grains stick to its body in Tanzania Main article: Honey bee The true honey bees (genus Apis) have arguably the most complex social behavior among the bees, is the best known bee species, and one of the best known of all insects. There are 29 subspecies of Apis mellifera, native to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Africanized honey bee Main article: Africanized bee Africanized bees, also called killer bees, are a hybrid strain of Apis mellifera derived from experiments by Warwick Estevam Kerr to cross European and African honey bee subspecies. Several queen bees escaped from his laboratory in South America and have spread throughout the Americas. Africanized honey bees are more defensive than European honey bees. Solitary and communal bees Most other bees, including familiar species of bee such as the Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica), alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata), orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria) and the hornfaced bee (Osmia cornifrons) are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There are no worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax. They are immune from acarine and Varroa mites, but have their own unique parasites, pests and diseases (see also diseases of the honey bee). Solitary bees are important pollinators, and pollen is gathered for provisioning the nest with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have very advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. A very few species of solitary bees are being increasingly cultured for commercial pollination. Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera, namely: carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees, polyester bees, squash bees, dwarf carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees, digger bees.[6][7] A solitary bee, Anthidium florentinum (family Megachilidae), visiting Lantana Solitary bees are often oligoleges, in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species/genera of plants (unlike honey bees and bumblebees which are generalists). No known bees are nectar specialists; many oligolectic bees will visit multiple plants for nectar, but there are no bees which visit only one plant for nectar while also gathering pollen from many different sources. Specialist pollinators also include bee species which gather floral oils instead of pollen, and male orchid bees, which gather aromatic compounds from orchids (one of the only cases where male bees are effective pollinators). In a very few cases only one species of bee can effectively pollinate a plant species, and some plants are endangered at least in part because their pollinator is dying off. There is, however, a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants which are visited by multiple pollinators (e.g., there are some 40 oligoleges associated with creosote bush in the US desert southwest,[8] and a similar pattern is seen in sunflowers, asters, mesquite, etc.) Solitary bees create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, holes in wood, or, most commonly, in tunnels in the ground. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Providing nest boxes for solitary bees is increasingly popular among gardeners. Solitary bees are either stingless or very unlikely to sting (only in self-defense, if ever). While solitary females each make individual nests, some species are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, giving the appearance to the casual observer that they are social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations, to distinguish them from colonies. In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when there are multiple females using that same entrance on a regular basis. Cleptoparasitic bees Bombus vestalis, a cuckoo bee parasite of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris Cleptoparasitic bees, commonly called "cuckoo bees" because their behavior is similar to cuckoo birds, occur in several bee families, though the name is technically best applied to the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of these bees lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and if the female cleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva. In a few cases where the hosts are social species, the cleptoparasite remains in the host nest and lays many eggs, sometimes even killing the host queen and replacing her. Many cleptoparasitic bees are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size, (i.e., the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus, which are parasitic bumblebees that infiltrate nests of species in other subgenera of Bombus). This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle known as "Emery's Rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, one species of which is a cleptoparasite of the dasypodaid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attack halictid bees. Nocturnal bees Four bee families (Andrenidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, and Apidae) contain some species that are crepuscular (these may be either the vespertine or matinal type). These bees have greatly enlarged ocelli, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Many are pollinators of flowers that themselves are crepuscular, such as evening primroses, and some live in desert habitats where daytime temperatures are extremely high. Flight Bee in mid air flight carrying pollen in pollen basket In M. Magnan 1934 French book Le vol des insectes, he wrote that he and a M. Saint-Lague had applied the equations of air resistance to bumblebees and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality".[9] This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory", but in fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters.[10] In 1996 Charlie Ellington at Cambridge University showed that vortices created by many insects’ wings and non-linear effects were a vital source of lift;[11] vortices and non-linear phenomena are notoriously difficult areas of hydrodynamics, which has made for slow progress in theoretical understanding of insect flight. In 2005, Michael Dickinson and his Caltech colleagues studied honey bee flight with the assistance of high-speed cinematography[12] and a giant robotic mock-up of a bee wing.[13] Their analysis revealed that sufficient lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.[14] Pollination See also: List of crop plants pollinated by bees Squash bees are important pollinators of the plant genus Cucurbita and closely related plants, such as cucumbers Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in ecosystems that contain flowering plants. Bees either focus on gathering nectar or on gathering pollen depending on demand, especially in social species. Bees gathering nectar may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen are more efficient pollinators. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee.[citation needed] Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. Monoculture and the massive decline of many bee species (both wild and domesticated) have increasingly caused honey bee keepers to become migratory so that bees can be concentrated in seasonally varying high-demand areas of pollination. Most bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge, which aids in the adherence of pollen. Female bees periodically stop foraging and groom themselves to pack the pollen into the scopa, which is on the legs in most bees, and on the ventral abdomen on others, and modified into specialized pollen baskets on the legs of honey bees and their relatives. Many bees are opportunistic foragers, and will gather pollen from a variety of plants, while others are oligolectic, gathering pollen from only one or a few types of plant. A small number of plants produce nutritious floral oils rather than pollen, which are gathered and used by oligolectic bees. One small subgroup of stingless bees, called "vulture bees," is specialized to feed on carrion, and these are the only bees that do not use plant products as food. Pollen and nectar are usually combined to form a "provision mass", which is often soupy, but can be firm. It is formed into various shapes (typically spheroid), and stored in a small chamber (a "cell"), with the egg deposited on the mass. The cell is typically sealed after the egg is laid, and the adult and larva never interact directly (a system called "mass provisioning"). Honey Bees immersed in Cactus flower pollen In New Zealand scientists discovered that three genera of native bees have evolved to open flower buds of the native mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala. The buds cannot open themselves but are visited by birds such as the tui and bellbird which twist the top of the ripe bud. That action releases a mechanism which causes the petals to suddenly spring open, giving access to the nectar and pollen. However, when observing the native bees in the Canterbury province in the South Island, the scientists were astonished to see the bees biting the top off the buds, then pushing with their legs, occasionally popping open the buds to allow the bees to harvest the nectar and pollen, and therefore aid in the pollination of the mistletoe which is in decline in New Zealand. Nowhere else in the world have bees demonstrated ability to open explosive bird-adapted flowers.[15] Visiting flowers can be a dangerous occupation. Many assassin bugs and crab spiders hide in flowers to capture unwary bees. Other bees are lost to birds in flight. Insecticides used on blooming plants kill many bees, both by direct poisoning and by contamination of their food supply. A honey bee queen may lay 2000 eggs per day during spring buildup, but she also must lay 1000 to 1500 eggs per day during the foraging season, mostly to replace daily casualties, most of which are workers dying of old age. Among solitary and primitively social bees, however, lifetime reproduction is among the lowest of all insects, as it is common for females of such species to produce fewer than 25 offspring. The population value of bees depends partly on the individual efficiency of the bees, but also on the population itself. Thus while bumblebees have been found to be about ten times more efficient pollinators on cucurbits, the total efficiency of a colony of honey bees is much greater due to greater numbers. Likewise during early spring orchard blossoms, bumblebee populations are limited to only a few queens, and thus are not significant pollinators of early fruit. Bees and humans Bee larvae as food in Java Former coat of arms of Abella de la Conca, Lleida, Spain Bees figure prominently in mythology and folklore and have been used by political theorists as a model for human society. Journalist Bee Wilson states that the image of a community of honey bees "occurs from ancient to modern times, in Aristotle and Plato; in Virgil and Seneca; in Erasmus and Shakespeare; Tolstoy, as well as by social theorists Bernard Mandeville and Karl Marx."[16] They are found in heraldry where they can signify industriousness as in the Manchester bee in the crest of Manchester City Council. In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as "Telling the bees".[17] Despite the honey bee's painful sting and the stereotype of insects as pests, bees are generally held in high regard. This is most likely due to their usefulness as pollinators and as producers of honey, their social nature, and their reputation for diligence. Bees are one of the few insects frequently used in advertisements in a positive manner, typically for products containing honey (such as Honey Nut Cheerios). In ancient Egypt, the bee was seen to symbolize the lands of Lower Egypt, with the Pharaoh being referred to as "He of Sedge and Bee" (the sedge representing Upper Egypt). In North America, yellowjackets and hornets, especially when encountered as flying pests, are often misidentified as bees, despite numerous differences between them. Although a bee sting can be deadly to those with allergies, virtually all bee species are non-aggressive if undisturbed and many cannot sting at all. Humans are often a greater danger to bees, as bees can be affected or even harmed by encounters with toxic chemicals in the environment (see also bees and toxic chemicals). In Indonesia bee larvae are eaten as a companion to rice, after being mixed with shredded coconut "meat", wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed. Pollinator decline Morphology of a female honey bee Main article: Pollinator decline From 1972 to 2006, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of feral honey bees in the US, which are now almost absent.[18] At the same time there was a significant though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors, such as urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers' retiring and going out of business. However, in late 2006 and early 2007 the rate of attrition reached new proportions, and the term colony collapse disorder was coined to describe the sudden disappearances.[19] After several years of research and concern, a team of scientists headed by Jerry Bromenshenk published a paper in October 2010 saying that a new DNA-based virus, invertebrate iridescent virus or IIV6, and the fungus Nosema ceranae were found in every killed colony the group studied. In their study they found that neither agent alone seemed deadly, but a combination of the virus and Nosema ceraneae was always 100% fatal. Bromenshenk said it is not yet clear whether one condition weakens the bees enough to be finished off by the second, or whether they somehow compound the other’s destructive power. "They're co-factors, that’s all we can say at the moment. They’re both present in all these collapsed colonies."[20][21][22] Investigations into the phenomenon had occurred amidst great concern over the nature and extent of the losses.[23] In 2009 some reports from the US suggested that 1/3 of the honey bee colonies did not survive the winter,[24] though normal winter losses are known to be around 25%.[25] At the end of May 2012, the Swiss government reported that about half of the bee population had not survived the winter. The main cause of the decline was thought to be the parasite varroa.[26] Apart from colony collapse disorder, many of the losses outside the US have also been attributed to other causes. Pesticides used to treat seeds, such as Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam, have been considered prime suspects.[27][28][29] Other species of bees such as mason bees are increasingly cultured and used to meet the agricultural pollination need.[30] Native pollinators include bumblebees and solitary bees, which often survive in refuges in wild areas away from agricultural spraying, but may still be poisoned in massive spray programs for mosquitoes, gypsy moths, or other insect pests. Although pesticide use remains a concern, the major problem for wild pollinator populations is the loss of the flower-rich habitat on which they depend for food.[citation needed] Throughout the northern hemisphere, the last 70 or so years have seen an intensification of agricultural systems, which has decreased the abundance and diversity of wild flowers.[31] Legislation such as the UK's Bees Act 1980 is designed to stop the decline of bees.[32] In April 2013 the European Union announced plans to restrict the use of certain pesticides to stop bee populations from declining further.[33] In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that bees and other pollinators faced increased risk of extinction because of global warming. This was due to their natural habitats moving and the alteration in the seasonal behaviour of species.[34] Climate change was causing the natural foraging areas for bees to change location but the bees were not always be able to move to these new areas. Bees were also emerging at different times in the year due to global warming when flowering plants were not available. See also Apiology Bee and wasp stings Honey bee life cycle International Union for the Study of Social Insects Insect_hotel#Solitary_bees_and_wasps Pesticide toxicity to bees Schmidt Sting Pain Index Starr sting pain scale Proboscis extension reflex Regional lists List of bees of Great Britain References ^ Jump up to: a b Danforth BN, Sipes S, Fang J, Brady SG (October 2006). "The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 (41): 15118–23. doi:10.1073/pnas.0604033103. PMC 1586180. PMID 17015826. Jump up ^ Sakagami, Shôichi F.; Zucchi, Ronaldo (1974). "Oviposition Behavior of Two Dwarf Stingless Bees, Hypotrigona (Leurotrigona) muelleri and H. (Trigonisca) duckei, with Notes on the Temporal Articulation of Oviposition Process in Stingless Bees". Journal of the Faculty Of Science Hokkaido University Series Vi. Zoology 19 (2): 361–421. Jump up ^ Poinar GO, Danforth BN (October 2006). "A fossil bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber". Science 314 (5799): 614. doi:10.1126/science.1134103. PMID 17068254. Jump up ^ Engel, Michael S. (13 February 2001). "Monophyly and Extensive Extinction of Advanced Eusocial Bees: Insights from an Unexpected Eocene Diversity". PNAS (National Academy of Sciences) 98 (4): 1661–1664. doi:10.1073/pnas.041600198. JSTOR 3054932. PMC 29313. PMID 11172007. Jump up ^ "Bumblebee Specialist Group: 2011 Update" (PDF). IUCN. Retrieved 7 October 2012. Jump up ^ "List of most important pollen bees". Insects.about.com. 9 April 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012. Jump up ^ "Genuses of solitary bees important for commercial pollination". Beesource.com. 8 July 1964. Retrieved 20 August 2012. Jump up ^ Hurd, P.D. Jr., Linsley, E.G. (1975). "The principal Larrea bees of the southwestern United States". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 193 (193): 1–74. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.193. Jump up ^ Ingram, Jay (2001) The Barmaid's Brain, Aurum Press, pp. 91–92, ISBN 0716741202. Jump up ^ Adams, Cecil (4 May 1990). "Is it aerodynamically impossible for bumblebees to fly?". The Straight Dope. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009. Jump up ^ Secrets of bee flight revealed, Phillips, Helen. 28 November 2005. Retrieved 28 December 2007. Jump up ^ A video from newscientist.com. Jump up ^ Deciphering the Mystery of Bee Flight Caltech Media Relations. 29 November 2005. Retrieved 2007, 4–7. Jump up ^ Douglas L. Altshuler, William B. Dickson, Jason T. Vance, Stephen P. Roberts, and Michael H. Dickinson (2005). "Short-amplitude high-frequency wing strokes determine the aerodynamics of honeybee flight". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102 (50): 18213–18218. doi:10.1073/pnas.0506590102. PMC 1312389. PMID 16330767. Jump up ^ Kelly, Dave (April 1998). "Native Bees With New Tricks". New Zealand Science Monthly. Archived from the original on 2007-11-07. Jump up ^ Wilson, Bee (2004). The Hive: the Story of the Honeybee. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-6598-7. Jump up ^ Steve Roud (6 April 2006). The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-0-14-194162-2. Jump up ^ Watanabe, M. (1994). "Pollination worries rise as honey bees decline". Science 265 (5176): 1170. doi:10.1126/science.265.5176.1170. PMID 17787573. Jump up ^ "Honey Bee Die-Off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers and Researchers". Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences. 29 January 2007. Jump up ^ Johnson, Kirk (6 October 2010) Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery. New York Times. Jump up ^ Eban, Katherine (8 October 2010). "What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 20 August 2012. Jump up ^ Jerry J. Bromenshenk, Colin B. Henderson, Charles H. Wick, Michael F. Stanford, Alan W. Zulich, Rabih E. Jabbour, Samir V. Deshpande, Patrick E. McCubbin, Robert A. Seccomb, Phillip M. Welch, Trevor Williams, David R. Firth, Evan Skowronski, Margaret M. Lehmann, Shan L. Bilimoria, Joanna Gress, Kevin W. Wanner, Robert A. Cramer Jr (6 October 2010). "Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline". PLoS ONE. Jump up ^ "Honey bees in US facing extinction", Telegraph, 14 March 2007. Jump up ^ Benjamin, Alison (2 May 2010) Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe. The Observer. Jump up ^ "Beekeepers Report Continued Heavy Losses From Colony Collapse Disorder". Sciencedaily.com. 12 May 2008. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2010. Jump up ^ "Hiver fatal pour la moitié des colonies d'abeilles en Suisse". Radio Télévision Suissse. 22 May 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012. Jump up ^ Gesundheitlicher und wirtschaftlicher Verbraucherschutz. German Consumer Protection Agency Bulletin, 9 June 2008. Jump up ^ Erik Storkstad (30 March 2012). "Field Research on Bees Raises Concern About Low-Dose Pesticides". Science 335 (6076): 1555. doi:10.1126/science.335.6076.1555. Jump up ^ EFSA report of 16 january 2013 Jump up ^ Orchard Mason Bees. gardening.wsu.edu. Jump up ^ Morelle, Rebecca (28 May 2012) 'Extinct' short-haired bumblebee returns to UK BBC News, Science and the Environment, Accessed 28 May 2012 Jump up ^ "Statute Law UK". Crown Copyright. March 1980. Retrieved 20 January 2009. Jump up ^ "EU moves to protect bees". 3 News NZ. 30 April 2013. Jump up ^ Gosden Emily (29 March 2014) Bees and the crops they pollinate are at risk from climate change, IPCC report to warn The Daily Telegraph, Retrieved 30 March 2014 Further reading O'Toole, Christopher, and Raw, Anthony. (1991). Bees of the World. New York: Facts on File. Michener, Charles D. (2007). The Bees of the World, second edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bees Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apoidea. Wikispecies has information related to: Apoidea Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Beekeeping/Solitary_Bee All Living Things Images, identification guides, and maps of bees Bee Genera of the World Solitary Bees & Things Solitary Bees in British gardens Scientists identify the oldest known bee, a 100 million-year-old specimen preserved in amber North American species of bees at Bugguide Native Bees of North America |
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Sep 24, 2014 05:50
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Good thread! 
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Sep 24, 2014 10:57
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i don't get it?? |
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Sep 24, 2014 12:44
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Fart This article is about the word fart itself. For information on the bodily function of passing intestinal gas (flatus) via the anus, see Flatulence. For other uses, see Fart (disambiguation). German peasants greet the fire and brimstone from a papal bull of Pope Paul III in Martin Luther's 1545 Depictions of the Papacy Fart is a word in the English language most commonly used in reference to flatulence. The word "fart" is generally considered unsuitable in formal situations as it may be considered vulgar or offensive. Fart can be used as a noun or a verb.[1] The immediate roots are in the Middle English words ferten, feortan or farten, kin of the Old High German word ferzan. Cognates are found in old Norse, Slavic and also Greek and Sanskrit. The word "fart" has been incorporated into the colloquial and technical speech of a number of occupations, including computing. Etymology The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary. Its Indo-European origins are confirmed by the many cognate words in some other Indo-European languages: It is cognate with Greek πέρδομαι (perdomai), as well as the Latin pēdĕre, Sanskrit pardate, Avestan pərəδaiti, Italian fare un peto, French "péter", Russian пердеть (perdet') and Polish "pierd" << PIE *perd [break wind loudly] or *pezd [the same, softly], all of which mean the same thing. Like most Indo-European roots in the Germanic languages, it was altered under Grimm's law, so that Indo-European /p/ > /f/, and /d/ > /t/, as the German cognate furzen also manifests.[2][3][4][5] Vulgarity and offensiveness A humorous fart sign. In certain circles the word is considered merely a common profanity with an often humorous connotation. For example, a person may be referred to as a 'fart', or an 'old fart', not necessarily depending on the person's age. This may convey the sense that a person is boring or overly fussy and be intended as an insult, mainly when used in the second or third person. For example '"he's a boring old fart!" However the word may be used as a colloquial term of endearment or in an attempt at humorous self-deprecation (e.g., in such phrases as "I know I'm just an old fart" or "you do like to fart about!"). 'Fart' is often only used as a term of endearment when the subject is personally well known to the user. In both cases though, it tends to refer to personal habits or traits that the user considers to be a negative feature of the subject, even when it is a self-reference. For example, when concerned that a person is being overly methodical they might say 'I know I'm being an old fart', potentially to forestall negative thoughts and opinions in others. When used in an attempt to be offensive, the word is still considered vulgar, but it remains a mild example of such an insult. This usage dates back to the Medieval period, where the phrase 'not worth a fart' would be applied to an item held to be worthless.[6] Historical examples Treason!!! John Bull emits an explosive bout of flatulence at a poster of George III as an outraged William Pitt the Younger ticks him off. Newton's etching was probably a comment on Pitt's threat (realized the following month) to suspend habeas corpus. The word fart in Middle English occurs in "Sumer Is Icumen In", where one sign of summer is "bucke uerteþ" (the buck farts). It appears in several of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In "The Miller's Tale", Absolon has already been tricked into kissing Alison's buttocks when he is expecting to kiss her face. Her boyfriend Nicholas hangs his buttocks out of a window, hoping to trick Absolon into kissing his buttocks in turn and then farts in the face of his rival. In "The Summoner's Tale", the friars in the story are to receive the smell of a fart through a twelve-spoked wheel. In the early-modern period, the word fart was not considered especially vulgar; it even surfaced in literary works. For example, Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, included the word. Johnson defined it with two poems, one by Jonathan Swift, the other by Sir John Suckling.[7][8] Benjamin Franklin prepared an essay on the topic for the Royal Academy of Brussels in 1781 urging scientific study. In 1607, a group of Members of Parliament had written a ribald poem entitled The Parliament Fart, as a symbolic protest against the conservatism of the House of Lords and the king, James I.[9][10] Modern usage By the early twentieth century, the word "fart" had come to be considered rather vulgar in most English-speaking cultures. While not one of George Carlin's original seven dirty words, he noted in a later routine that the word fart, ought to be added to "the list" of words that were not acceptable (for broadcast) in any context (which have non-offensive meanings), and described television as (then) a "fart-free zone".[11] Thomas Wolfe had the phrase 'a fizzing and sulphuric fart' cut out of his 1929 work Look Homeward, Angel by his publisher. Ernest Hemingway, who had the same publisher, accepted the principle that fart could be cut, on the grounds that no one should use words only to shock.[12] The hippie movement in the 1970s saw a new definition develop, with the use of fart as a personal noun, to describe a 'detestable person, or someone of small stature or limited mental capacity', gaining wider and more open usage as a result.[13] Rhyming slang developed the alternative form 'Raspberry Tart', later shortened to 'Raspberry', and occasionally 'Razz'. This was associated with the phrase 'blowing a raspberry'.[14] The word has become more prevalent, and now features in children's literature, such as the Walter the Farting Dog series of children's books, Robert Munsch's Good Families Don't and The Gas We Pass by Shinta Cho. According to The Alphabet of Manliness, the assigning of blame for farting is part of a ritual of behaviour. This may involve deception and a back and forth rhyming game.[15] Derived terms include fanny fart (queef), brain fart (slang for a special kind of abnormal brain activity which results in human error while performing a repetitive task, or more generally denoting a degree of mental laxity or any task-related forgetfulness, such as forgetting how to hold a fork) and old fart. See also Flatulence humor Le Pétomane References "Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2010-11-12. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th edition, 2000) Dictionnaire Hachette de la Langue Française, (Hachette, 1995) ISBN 0-317-45629-6 T. G. Tucker, Etymological Dictionary of Latin, (Halle, 1931, repr. Ares Publishers, 1985) ISBN 0-89005-172-0 Liberman, Anatoly (July 25, 2012). "Puzzling heritage: The verb 'fart'". OUPBlog. Retrieved July 25, 2012. Hughes, Geoffrey (2000). A History of English Words. Blackwell Publishing. p. 130. ISBN 0-631-18855-X. Evans, Ron (2002). Coming Home: Saskatchewan Remembered. Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 95. ISBN 1-55002-379-9. "An ill wind. Some fascinating facts about farting". Davyking.com. c. 1985. Retrieved 2010-11-12. Marotti, Arthur (1995). Manuscript, print, and the English renaissance lyric. Cornell University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-8014-8238-0. Curtis, Polly (2005-06-23). "Ode to fart gets airing at last". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2010-11-12. "http://wayback.archive.org/web/20070715090842/http://www.georgecarlin.com/dirty/dirty3.html". George Carlin. Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2009-10-07. Leff, Arthur (1997). Hemingway and His Conspirators: Hollywood, Scribners, and the Making of American Celebrity Culture. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 105. ISBN 0-8476-8545-4. McCleary (2004). The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s. Ten Speed Press. p. 174. ISBN 1-58008-547-4. Burridge, Kate (2005). Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further Observations on the Tangled History of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-521-85313-3. Maddox, Angelo Vildasol. Alphabet of Manliness. p. 64. Further reading Dawson, Jim (2010). Did somebody step on a duck?: a natural history of the fart. Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1-58008-133-9. External links Look up fart in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 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Sep 24, 2014 12:51
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greetings to the 18 yr old byob girl who isn't afraid to take those fyad fucks down a peg |
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Sep 24, 2014 12:52
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