3 PARONOMASIA OR WORDPLAY? on sound similarity 6. More specific concepts, such as pari/swsiv and pa/rison, paromoi/wsiv, o(moiote/leuton are first encountered in Aristotle’s (384–322 B.C.E.) Rhetorica 7. However, according to Casanowicz, it is rather the post-Aristotelian terminology parh/xhsiv and especially paronomasi/a (referred to as adnominatio or annom- inatio by Roman rhetors such as Cicero) that seem to have had the most impact in classical literature 8. As becomes clear from looking at the definitions of the concept of paronomasia by some rhetors, the term paronomasia is generally used to refer to “the proximity of two words varying only slightly in form, and having a different meaning” 9. Casanowicz, for example, mentions the Roman rhetor Cornificius who considered the combination lenones (“panders; seducers”) ― leones (“lions”) to be an illustration of paronomasia 10. Indeed, both words have a different meaning, although they vary only slightly in form: the word lenones has an extra “n” with regard to the noun leones. It is precisely this classical terminology of paronomasia that Casanowicz himself uses to characterize wordplay in Old Testament passages 11. However, this use of the concept paronomasia to refer to Hebrew word- play is problematic in a two-fold way in our opinion. First, although we can agree with Casanowicz when he states that the most common definition of paronomasia in classical rhetoric is related to the proximity of two words that share a similar sound pat- tern but have a different meaning, we should not overlook the diver- 6 Cf. PLATO, Lysis. Symposium. Gorgias. With an English Translation by W.R.M. Lamb (LCL 166; Cambridge, MA 2001). 7 Cf. ARISTOTELES, Problems. Rhetorica ad Alexandrum. With an English Translation by W.S. Hett (LCL 317; Cambridge, MA 1965). 8 CASANOWICZ, Paronomasia in the Old Testament, 1. 9 CASANOWICZ, Paronomasia in the Old Testament, 1-3. Casanowicz lists several classical authors, out of which for example the Greek rhetor Alexan- der Numenius (1st half of the 2nd century), the Roman rhetors Cicero (1st cen- tury B.C.) and Aquila Romanus (2nd half of the 3rd century) define paronomasia as the proximity of two words with a similar sound pattern, but a different meaning. 10 CASANOWICZ, Paronomasia in the Old Testament, 2-3. 11 Casanowicz could have chosen to use the term of Jewish scholars to denote (certain types of) Hebrew wordplay, namely the construction Nw#l  l(  lpwn  Nw#l (literally “language falling on top of language”). Cf. CHERRY, Paronomasia and Proper Names in the Old Testament, 4; E.L. GREENSTEIN, “Wordplay: Hebrew”, ABD 6 (1992) 968-971, 968. However, Casanowicz himself clearly opts for the “classical” term paronomasia.