A spoonerism is an error in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained ministerWilliam Archibald Spooner, who reputedly did this. An example is 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, and getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words.
Etymology
Spoonerisms are 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...
An article in the Daily Herald in 1928 reported Spoonerisms to be a 'legend'. A Mr. Robert Seton, once a student of Dr. Spooner, admitted that the Dr.
made, to my knowledge, only one "Spoonerism" in his life, in 1879, when he stood in the pulpit and announced the hymn: 'Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take'...Later, a friend and myself brought out a book of "spoonerisms"'
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 himself 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 he gives nine examples "attributed to Spooner, most of them spuriously." They are as follows:
"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 seriesHee Haw, comedian/writer Archie Campbell was well known for using spoonerisms in his skits, most famously the "Pee Little Thrigs" and "Rindercella" skits, as well as previously doing so in his own comedy recordings well before the country/western-themed TV variety series, such as his "Beeping Sleauty" sketch.
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 range from "Resident Pagan" and the US's periodic practice of "Licking their Peaders" to the NSA "poopin' on Snutin" and "phugging everybody's bones".
Comedienne Jane Ace was notorious for her spoonerisms and other similar plays on words during her run as star of the radio sitcom Easy Aces.
Poetry
's book Runny Babbit is almost completely written in spoonerisms, from character names to anything else. 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.
In Samuil Marshak's poem What an Absent-Minded Guy, the titular character uses spoonerisms at one point. The character is based on the Russian scientist :ru:Каблуков, Иван Алексеевич|Ivan Kablukov, who was prone to spoonerisms himself.
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.
Music
The title of the Van der Graaf Generator's album Pawn Hearts resulted from a spoonerism by David Jackson, who said one time: "I'll go down to the studio and dub on some more porn hearts", meaning to say 'horn parts'.
The title of Caravan's album "Cunning Stunts" is a spoonerism created by the band in the same vein as the titles of their two previous albums, "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" and "For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night".
Folk etymology
A spoonerism is sometimes used in folk etymology. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, some laymen wrongly believe that the English word butterfly derives from flutter by.
Kniferisms and forkerisms
As complements to spoonerism, Douglas Hofstadter used the nonce wordskniferism and forkerism to refer to changing, respectively, the vowels or the final consonants of two syllables, 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 presenterHarry von Zell accidentally mispronouncing US President Herbert Hoover's name as "Hoobert Heever." Usage of these new terms has been limited; many sources count any syllable exchange as a spoonerism, regardless of location.
