What is SPOONERISM? How did this word coined?

Answer 1

A spoonerism is a play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis), named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency. Some of his famous (and apocryphal) quotations from the chapel include "The Lord is a shoving leopard," "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," and "Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?." (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?) The spoonerism is a now legendary 'slip of the tongue'.

Other gaffes worth mentioning are his angry speech to a student, "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain," actually intending to say "missed history", "lighting fire", "wasted terms", and "down train", respectively. During a college reception, he remarked to one lady "You'll soon be had, as a matter of course", when he meant to say "Mad as a Hatter, of course". A few more which you can probably work out for yourself include (making a toast) "Let us glaze our asses to the queer old Dean", "We'll have the hags flung out", "a half-warmed fish" and "Is the bean dizzy?"

Spooner is also recorded by Littlewood as having proposed a toast to "The Boar's Head" (a pub), but this was emphatically not a spoonerism.

It should be pointed out that many of the quotes attributed to Spooner are apocryphal - The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition, 1979) only lists one substantiated Spoonerism - "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer"

In modern terms, spoonerism is any changing of sounds in this manner. While simple enough to do, a clever spoonerism is one that results in a funny phrase or sentence. "Flutterby" is an oft-cited example of a spoonerism that has not lost its original meaning.

When dealing with letters that correspond to produce a different sound than their separate connotations such as 'sh', 'ch', 'ph', etc... both letters are moved to preserve the original verbal sound. For example, 'Cheer for Dennis' would be 'Deer for Chennis'.

Best described or illustrated to new English speakers would be the transposition of the first staccato or plosive in a word pair such as: Par Cark.
Examples in modern entertainment

* In the TV series Green Acres, Mr. Douglas addresses the governor of the state (the Kangaroo State!) on behalf of the "poople of Heeterville".
* The dwarf Doc, voiced by comedian Roy Atwell, provided spoonerism comedy in Walt Disney's film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
* Another Disney example is Zummi, one of the Gummi Bears, who frequently produced spoonerisms when nervous.
* Doodles Weaver frequently injected spoonerisms into the tunes he sang with the Spike Jones band
* NOFX's best-selling album was entitled "Punk in Drublic".
* An alleged spoonerism led to the nickname "the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." (An LP set of bloopers released in the 1970s included this one, where a French Canadian announcer, doing an English network identification, stated "This is the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration.")
* An announcer on BBC Radio once introduced the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps as "Sir Stifford Crapps"
* A radio announcer once introduced Herbert Hoover, the President of the United States at that time as "Hoobert Heaver".
* The Capitol Steps have successfully done a few political comedy routines ("Lirty Dies") based on this premise.
* Comedian Ronnie Barker played the Reverend in a sketch on The Two Ronnies TV show.
* American comedian Archie Campbell, one of the stars of the long-running TV show Hee Haw, performed routines about "Rindercella and the Pransome Hince" and "Beeping Sleauty".
* Comedian Jasper Carrott claims to have an aunt who frequently makes spoonerisms, referring to him as a 'shining wit'. He also performed Bastity Chelt where every line contained a spoonerism, for example Unlick my pock.
* One of comedian Kenny Everett's most popular characters was a blonde woman named 'Cupid Stunt'.
* Monty Python's Big Red Book contains a poem allegedly written by "Rev. Spooner" and contains the line "biny little tirds".
* The Shel Silverstein book Runny Babbit, published posthumously in 2005, consists entirely of poetry (and illustrations) filled with spoonerisms.
* Dutch author Battus (pseudonym of Hugo Brandt Corstius) is famous for his many wordplays, also including spoonerism.
* In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the character Jar-Jar Binks says "Dellow felegates" when addressing the senate.
* "Buck Fush" became a fairly popular spoonerism around the 2004 election, and continues to be seen on t-shirts, hats, and the like.
* Professional World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Wrestler John Cena briefly wore a hat containing the spoonerism "Ruck Fules", which was censored by UPN Standards and Practices by being blurred via a video distortion.
* The character of Ben Baglin in Dennis Potter's final work, Karaoke, played by Roy Hudd is prone to spoonerisms "when agitated", which, during the course of the play, is often - for example, when interrupted from modelbuilding by the main character in the middle of the night, Baglin exclaims down the phone, "You realise it's lucking fate?"
* Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark goes for a three-fer with "killed him in a rit of fealous jage".
* Mayor Lumpkin in Trollkins was prone to spoonerisms, at one point, saying: "[...] my golf game, er, golf game... Hey, I can't mess up these words!"'
* In one episode of The Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob tries to murder Bart, Chief Wiggum is trying to put him in prison and says "Bake him away, toys!"
* In another episode of The Simpsons, Chief Wiggum yells "Scum Freezebag!" instead of "Freeze, Scumbag", and tries to hastily correct himself.
* Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's surname is a spoonerism of the name Pahasaneemapetilon, which was the surname of a school mate of Simpsons writer Jeff Martin.
* Paul Jennings, Ted Greenwood and Terry Denton have collaborated together to create "Spooner or Later", a puzzle-like book to figure out spoonerisms that are pictured around the sides.
* In 2005, the Drudge Report ran with the headline "Cindy Sheehan Arrested at White House in Cunning Stunt."[1]

Answer 2

Archie Campbell Spoonerisms

Answer 3

Spoonerism - a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of 2 or more words, often to humorous effect, as in the sentence "you have hissed the mystery lectures"

ORIGIN: early 20th century: named after Revd W. A. Spooner (1844-1930), an English scholar who reputedly made such errors in speaking

Answer 4

Spoonerisms are named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844-1930) who was Dean and Warden of New College in Oxford, England. He is reputed to have made verbal slips frequently.But Spooner was no featherbrain. In fact his mind was so nimble his tongue couldn't keep up. The Greeks had a word for this type of impediment long before Spooner was born: metathesis. It means the act of switching things around.

Reverend Spooner's tendency to get words and sounds crossed up could happen at any time, but especially when he was agitated. He reprimanded one student for "fighting a liar in the quadrangle" and another who "hissed my mystery lecture." To the latter he added in disgust, "You have tasted two worms."

Answer 5

spoonerism is a mistake made when speaking in which the first sounds of two words are exchanged with each other to produce a not intended and usually amusing meaning.


The Reverend William Spooner used to produce spoonerisms such as 'a scoop of boy trouts', instead of what he had meant to say - 'a troop of boy scouts'.

this was made famous in sheridan's play, the rivals, where mrs. malaprop used wrong words to get the comic effect. therefore, after her, it has also been called malapropism.

hope u got your answer!

Answer 6

this term is coined in the way of mr . spooner who used t osplell words wrongly
interchangig the the phraces of two different words
it became famous
so the name

Answer 7

A spoonerism occurs when you reverse the parts of two words to create an interesting variation.

eg saying "stance dep" in place of "dance step"

or "jack flacket" in place of "flack jacket".

It was named after Professor Spooner, who created such errors.

Answer 8

unintentional switching of the initial sounds of two or more words, such as "sped rot" for "red spot

Tease my ears (Ease my tears)
A lack of pies (A pack of lies)
It's roaring with pain (It's pouring with rain)
Wave the sails (Save the whales)

fighting a liar ? lighting a fire
you hissed my mystery lecture? you missed my history lecture
cattle ships and bruisers (battle ships and cruisers )
nosey little cook (cosy little nook )
a blushing crow (a crushing blow )
tons of soil (sons of toil )
our queer old Dean (our dear old Queen )
we'll have the hags flung out ( we'll have the flags hung out )
you've tasted two worms ( you've wasted two terms)
our shoving leopard (our loving shepherd)
a half-warmed fish ( a half-formed wish )
is the bean dizzy? (is the Dean busy ?)

Answer 9

A transposition of sounds of two or more words, especially a ludicrous one, such as Let me sew you to your sheet for Let me show you to your seat.