A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants,
vowels, or morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase.
For example saying "The Lord is a shoving leopard" instead of "The Lord is a loving
shepherd".
While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally
getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words.
Etymology It is named after the Reverend William Archibald
Spooner, Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this mistake.
The term 'Spoonerism' was well established by 1921.
An article in The Times from that year reports that
"The boys of Aldro School, Eastbourne, [...] have been set the following task for the holidays:
Discover and write down something about: The Old Lady of Threadneedle-street, a Spoonerism,
a Busman's Holiday..."
In 1937 The Times quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used
"Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline.
A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky, purportedly after a Polish count who suffered
from the same impediment.
Examples Most of the quotations attributed to Spooner
are apocryphal; The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations lists only one substantiated spoonerism: "The
weight of rages will press hard upon the employer".
Spooner claimed that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" was his sole spoonerism.
Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself, but rather made
up by colleagues and students as a pastime.
Richard Lederer, calling "Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take" one of the "few" authenticated
Spoonerisms, dates it to 1879, and gives nine examples "attributed to Spooner, most of them
spuriously".
They are: "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"
"Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?"
"The Lord is a shoving leopard."
"A blushing crow."
"A well-boiled icicle" "You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle."
"Is the bean dizzy?"
"Someone is occupewing my pie.
Please sew me to another sheet."
"You have hissed all my mystery lectures.
You have tasted a whole worm.
Please leave Oxford on the next town drain."
A newspaper column attributes this additional example to Spooner: "A nosey little cook.".
Popular use In modern terms, "spoonerism" generally refers
to any changing of sounds in this manner.
On the TV series Hee Haw, comedian/writer Archie Campbell was well known for using spoonerisms
in his skits, most famously the "Rindercella" skit.
In the novel "Alchemy" by Margaret Mahy, Jess Ferret often uses deliberate spoonerisms.
In Maisie and the Pinny Gig by Ursula Dubosarsky, a little girl named Maisie has a recurrent
dream about a giant guinea pig, which she calls a "pinny gig."
In Jim Henson's Muppet rendition of "The Frog Prince", the princess is under an enchantment
by an evil witch forcing her to constantly speak in spoonerisms.
Central to the story is her repeated plea that somebody "bake the hall in the candle
of her brain," by which she really means "break the ball in the handle of her cane," referring
to the orb in the witch's scepter on which her powers depend.
Popular stand-up comic Andrew Dice Clay utilizes deliberate spoonerisms often, as an extension
of his ignorant Brooklyn "greaser" persona.
Shel Silverstein's book Runny Babbit is made up entirely of children's stories that use
spoonerisms.
The name of electronic musician Com Truise is a spoonerism of Tom Cruise.
Similarly, the name of the alternative musician Wevie Stonder is a spoonerism of Stevie Wonder.
The Washington, D.C. political comedy sketch group, Capitol Steps has a long-standing tradition
of performing a routine called "Lirty Dies" during every performance, which features a
typically 10 minute-long barrage of rapid-fire topical spoonerisms.
A few examples over the years might range from "Resident Pagan", and the US's periodic
practice of "Licking their Peaders" to NSA "poopin' on Snutin" and "phugging everybody's
bones".
Poetry In his poem "Translation," Brian P. Cleary
describes a boy named Alex who speaks in spoonerisms.
Humorously, Cleary leaves the poem's final spoonerism up to the reader when he says,
He once proclaimed, "Hey, belly jeans" When he found a stash of jelly beans.
But when he says he pepped in stew We'll tell him he should wipe his shoe.
Twisted tales Comedian F. Chase Taylor was the star of the
1930s radio program Stoopnagle and Budd, in which his character, Colonel Stoopnagle, used
spoonerisms.
In 1945 he published a book, My Tale is Twisted, consisting of 44 "spoonerised" versions of
well-known children's stories.
Subtitled "Wart Pun: Aysop's Feebles" and "Tart Pooh: Tairy and Other Fales", these
included such tales as "Beeping Sleauty" for "Sleeping Beauty".
The book was republished in 2001 by Stone and Scott Publishers as Stoopnagle's Tale
is Twisted.
Also known for telling entire fairytales using spoonerisms is "Zilch the Torysteller".
He travels to Renaissance Faires across the United States and in England regaling audiences
with hilarious versions of classic stories such as "Parunzel", "Jomeo and Ruliet", "Rindercella",
and "Rittle Led Hiding Rood".
Films In the Mel Brooks film Robin Hood: Men in
Tights, the Sheriff of Rottingham constantly speaks in spoonerisms.
An example of this: "Struckey has loxed again!"
- "Loxley has struck again!"
Song The musical Ruthless!
has a song called Unkie's Muncle with a spoonerism in every line.
The title is a spoonerism of "monkey's uncle."
Kniferism and forkerism As complements to spoonerism, Douglas Hofstadter
used the nonce terms kniferism and forkerism to refer to changing the syllables of two
words, giving them a new meaning.
Examples of so-called kniferisms include a British television newsreader once referring
to the police at a crime scene removing a 'hypodeemic nerdle'; a television announcer
once saying that "All the world was thrilled by the marriage of the Duck and Doochess of
Windsor" and during a live broadcast in 1931, radio presenter Harry von Zell accidentally
mispronouncing US President Herbert Hoover's name, "Hoobert Heever."
Usage of these new terms has been limited; many sources count any syllable exchange as
a spoonerism, regardless of location.
See also Blooper
Mondegreen Freudian slip
Malapropism Opperlandse taal- & letterkunde
Parody Phonetic reversal
Metathesis Portmanteau
Sananmuunnos Smart Feller Fart Smeller: And Other Spoonerisms
References
External links Lists of spoonerisms at fun-with-words.com
The Straight Dope: Who was Dr. Spooner?