A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding , , or are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase.
Examples include saying "blushing crow" instead of "crushing blow", or "runny babbit" instead of "bunny rabbit". While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue, they can also be used intentionally as a word play.
: Rabelais gives perhaps the earliest literary example: "II n'y a point d'enchantement. Chascun de vous l'a veu. Je y suis maistre passé. A brum, a brum, je suis prestre Macé." Rabelais, instead of repeating "maître passé" (past master), wrote "prêtre Macé" (priest Mace), the name of the historian René Macé, a monk whose name was synonymous with simple or foolish. In his novel Pantagruel, he wrote "femme folle à la messe et femme molle à la fesse" ("insane woman at Mass, woman with flabby buttocks").
Etymology
Spoonerisms are named for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden from 1903 to 1924 of New College, Oxford, who was allegedly susceptible to this mistake.
[Compare:]
The
Oxford English Dictionary records the word
spoonerism as early as 1900.
The term 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...["Every Schoolboy Knows", The Times, Dec 8, 1921, pg. 7.]
An article in the
Daily Herald in 1928 reported spoonerisms to be a "legend". In that piece, Robert Seton, once a student of Spooner's, claimed that Spooner:
...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' "Conquering...Later, a friend and myself brought out a book of "spoonerisms".['"Spoonerisms" a Legend' in Daily Herald 28/9/1928.]
In 1937, The Times quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used "Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline.[ The Times, 29 October 1937, pg. 9.]
A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky or morowski, purportedly after an 18th-century Polish people count who suffered from the same impediment.[Chambers Dictionary 1993 ]
Examples
Most of the quotations attributed to Spooner are apocryphal;
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition, 1979) lists only one substantiated spoonerism: "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer" (instead of "rate of wages"). Spooner himself claimed
that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" (in reference to a hymn)
was his sole spoonerism. Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself but rather invented by colleagues and students as a pastime.
Richard Lederer, calling "Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take" (with an alternative spelling) 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:
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"Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (while giving a toast at a dinner, which Queen Victoria was also attending)
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"Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (as opposed to "customary to kiss")
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"The Lord is a shoving leopard." (instead of "a loving shepherd")
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"A blushing crow." ("crushing blow")
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"A well-boiled icicle" ("well-oiled bicycle")
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"You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." ("lighting a fire")
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"Is the bean dizzy?" ("Dean busy")
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"Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet." ("Someone is occupying my pew. Please show me to another seat.")
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"You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted a whole worm. Please leave Oxford on the next town drain." ("You have missed all my history lectures. You have wasted a whole term. Please leave Oxford on the next down train.")
Usage
In modern terms,
spoonerism generally refers to any changing of sounds in this manner.
Comedy
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The long-running British comedy television show The Two Ronnies regularly featured segments with Ronnie Barker delivering a mock-serious speech littered with spoonerisms, written by Barker.
Writing in tribute for the inaugural Ronnie Barker Talk,
Ben Elton wrote:
What an honour. I grew up loving Ronnie Barker and can only hope the news that I am to give a talk in his name doesn't leave him spitting spiritedly splenetic spoonerisms in comedy heaven.
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The Washington, D.C. political comedy group Capitol Steps
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Comedian Jane Ace was notorious for her spoonerisms and other similar plays on words during her time as main actress of the radio situation comedy Easy Aces.
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The Season 3 Ted Lasso episode "Signs" sees Rebecca Welton bump into her ex-boyfriend who is referred to as a "shite in nining armor", a spoonerism of "knight in shining armor".
Literature
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Comedian F. Chase Taylor was the main actor 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.
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In 2005, HarperCollins published the late humorist Shel Silverstein's , a book about a rabbit whose parents "Dummy and Mad" gave him spoonerized chores, such as having to "Dash the wishes" (for "wash the dishes").
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In his poem "Translation," Brian P. Cleary describes a boy named Alex who speaks in spoonerisms (like "shook a tower" instead of "took a shower"). Humorously, Cleary leaves the poem's final spoonerism to the reader when he says:
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In D. H. Lawrence & Susan his Cow (1939), literary critic William York Tindall described behavioral psychologists as "occupied with nothing more spiritual than pulling habits out of rats".
[ originally given as a lecture at Smith College (Nov 13 1941) and Wellesley College (Dec 2 1941), Massachusetts.] two years later.)
Crosswords
Spoonerisms are used in cryptic crossword clues and use a
Word play, in which the initial sounds or syllables of two words are switched to provide a solution. The clue type is generally indicated by a direct reference to 'Spooner', although more tricky examples might refer to him only as 'Rev', or use such phrases as 'in a manner of speaking', or 'slip of the tongue'. Uniquely, in cryptic crosswords the words used to create the Spoonerism might only be hinted at, not explicitly stated.
Example: "Spooner's criminal with nurse finding hiding places." (4,3,6)
Solution: NOOK AND CRANNY (Spoonerism of CROOK AND NANNY).
Music
-
The title of the Van der Graaf Generator's 1971 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'.
[Christopulos, J., and Smart, P.: Van der Graaf Generator – The Book, p. 128. Phil and Jim publishers, 2005.]
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American indie rock musician Ritt Momney's name is a spoonerism of the name of the American politician Mitt Romney.
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American synthwave musician Com Truise's name is a spoonerism of the name of American actor Tom Cruise.
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Estonian complextro musician Mord Fustang's name is a spoonerism of the well-known Ford Mustang muscle car.
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English rapper Loyle Carner's stage name is a spoonerism of his double-barrelled surname Coyle-Larner as well as a reference to his childhood struggle with his ADHD and dyslexia diagnoses.
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American mathcore band The Callous Daoboys is a spoonerism of the Dallas Cowboys.
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Dutch electronic musician San Holo's name is a spoonerism of the Star Wars character Han Solo. This led Walt Disney Pictures to send a cease and desist letter for copyright infringement with potential penalty estimated between $5 million and $10 million.
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American thrash metal band Metallica released a live concert DVD in 1998, titled Cunning Stunts, with it being meant as a spoonerism for "stunning cunts".
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American hip-hop artist Tyler, the Creator's Streetwear brand, Golf Wang,
Radio
On the 3 December 1950 episode of
The Jack Benny Program, Jack mentions that he ran into his butler Rochester while in his car that was on a grease rack. Mary Livingston was supposed to say "How could you run into him on a grease rack?" but flubbed her line with "How could you run into him on a grass reek?" The audience laughed so much that Jack was unable to reply as the show ran out of time.
False etymology
Spoonerisms are used sometimes in
False etymology. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, some wrongly believe that the English word
butterfly derives from
utter y.
[Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. / [1]]
Kniferisms and forkerisms
As complements to
spoonerism, Douglas Hofstadter used the
kniferism 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 radio broadcast in 1931, radio presenter Harry von Zell accidentally mispronouncing U.S. President
Herbert Hoover's name as "Hoobert Heever".
See also
Notes
External links
