Word Play

Last Friday, I was sitting on my neighbor's porch talking to a friend, Robert, while my neighbor, Danny, had gone inside the house to get us drinks. We were talking about food, one of my favorite topics, and about having a sweet tooth. I asked Robert if he liked dates, and he remembered how he'd tried dates stuffed with some kind of nut, maybe almonds or walnuts. Then Danny arrived with the drinks, and Larry asked him. "Do you like dates with nuts?" Danny replied, "Well... I've been on a few dates with nuts, but I can't say I like them." We had a good laugh. Then as Robert explained the misunderstanding, I entered my dream world of linguistic features, thinking about homonyms.

What are homonyms?

homonyms (homo + onym)

words that sound the same and are spelled the same but have different meanings

example:

I like to eat dates with my tea when I go out on dates.

not to be confused with...

homophones (homo + phone)

words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings

example:

They're paining their house.

homographs (homo + graph)

words that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently and have different meanings

example:

He moped when he saw what happened to his moped.

these words all contain "homo"

homo

►root word

Latin (homo) → man 
examples: homosapien (sapien: sapient/wise), homo erectus (erect: upright)

Greek (homos) → same (used as a prefix)
examples: homosexual (sex: gender), homonym (onym: name), homophone (phone: sound), homograph (graph: writing/drawing)

►derogatory term

short for homosexual (offensive)

Joey, Joey, Joey

https://youtu.be/8EPkIeafa50