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I found the following two sources which appear to be useful to explain this word:

Paronyms can be formed by addition or by subtraction.

Source: Cooper, Lane (1922). An Aristotelian theory of comedy : with an adaptation of the Poetics, and a translation of the "Tractatus Coislinianus". New York : Harcourt, Brace. p. 233.

Humor

In Tractatus coislinianus, Aristotle classified the types of humor.

Source: Attardo, Salvatore (1994). Linguistic Theories of Humor. Walter de Gruyter. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-11-014255-6.

I am not familar with the field of linguistics. Please help to further clarify if these should be added into the article. Comments welcome - DutchTreat (talk) 22:39, 10 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Diligence" signifies "love" and "dirigence" "conduction". These two words are paronymic. Its correlates are "dilect", "dilected", "dilection", "dilector", "diligent", "direct", "directed", "direction", "director", "dirigent" and so on.

200.155.117.201 (talk) 14:40, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And that particular pair of paronyms is of interest because? Guy Harris (talk) 20:57, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Diligence" (with "L") is a connected word with "love" and "dirigence" (with "R") a connected with "conduction". "Predilection" is a derivated word of "dilection" ("love").

21:34, 19 February 2025 (UTC) 189.50.186.221 (talk) 21:34, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps interesting, but not particularly relevant to the concept of a paronym, so WP:NOTFORUM - get a blog or Substack or something such as that. Guy Harris (talk) 22:23, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Elian" and "helian"/"Helian" are paronymic words.

"Elian" signifies "relative to Elijah", "helian" "relative to helium" and "Helian" "relative to a Helius". The paronyms "Elian" and "Helian" are two significationally different masculine prenames.

189.50.186.221 (talk) 13:37, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are more paronyms than that; why are those particularly notable? Guy Harris (talk) 20:55, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Explication: The etymology of "Elijah" signifies "the Lord is my God" and the etymology of "Helius" "Sun".

189.50.186.221 (talk) 22:04, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps interesting, but not particularly relevant to the concept of a paronym, so WP:NOTFORUM - get a blog or Substack or something such as that. Guy Harris (talk) 22:22, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

They can be used in similar contexts: "The AI was failing" vs "the AI was flailing (about)". "Flail" can be used figuratively to refer to frantic activity that doesn't work. It can therefore refer to a failure of sorts. Svennik (talk) 14:16, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 August 2025 and 10 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jeylotte (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Jeylotte (talk) 02:20, 11 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]