An example of spoonerism on a protest placard inLondon: "Buck Frexit" instead of "FuckBrexit"
Aspoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which correspondingconsonants,vowels, ormorphemes are switched (seemetathesis) between two words of a phrase.[1][a] These are named after the Oxford don and priestWilliam Archibald Spooner, who reportedly commonly spoke in this way.[2]
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 aword play.
The first known spoonerisms were published by the 16th-century authorFrançois Rabelais and termedcontrepèteries.[3] In his novelPantagruel, he wrote"femme folle à la messe et femme molle à la fesse" ("insane woman at Mass, woman with flabby buttocks").[4]
Spoonerisms are named for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden from 1903 to 1924 ofNew College, Oxford, who was allegedly susceptible to this mistake.[5][6][7]TheOxford English Dictionary records the wordspoonerism as early as 1900.[8]The term was well-established by 1921. An article inThe 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...[9]
An article in theDaily 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 Kings their Titles Take"]...Later, a friend and myself brought out a book of "spoonerisms".[10]
In 1937,The Times quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used "Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline.[11]
A spoonerism is also known as amarrowsky ormorowski, purportedly after an 18th-centuryPolish count who suffered from the same impediment.[12][8]
Caricature ofCharles H. Workman. The accompanying biography reads, "The only part of him which gets tired is his tongue, and occasionally the oft-repeated lines have got muddled. 'Self-constricted ruddles', 'his striggles were terruffic', and 'deloberately rib me' are a few of the spoonerisms he has perpetrated."
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[5] that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" (in reference to a hymn)[13] was his sole spoonerism. Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself but rather invented by colleagues and students as a pastime.[14]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".[15] They are as follows:
"Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (while giving a toast at a dinner, whichQueen Victoria was also attending)[15]
"Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (as opposed to "customary to kiss")[15]
"The Lord is a shoving leopard." (instead of "a loving shepherd")[15]
"Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet." ("Someone is occupying my pew. Please show me to another seat.")[15]
"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.")[15]
The long-running British comedy television showThe Two Ronnies regularly featured segments withRonnie Barker delivering a mock-serious speech littered with spoonerisms, written by Barker.
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.[16]
The Washington, D.C. political comedy groupCapitol Steps[17] had a long-standing tradition of performing a routine named "Lirty Dies"[18] 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" (President Reagan) and the US's periodic practice of "Licking their Peaders" (Picking their leaders) to the NSA "poopin' on Snutin" (Snoopin' on Putin) and "phugging everybody's bones" (bugging everybody's phones).
ComedianJane Ace was notorious for her spoonerisms and other similar plays on words during her time as main actress of the radio situation comedyEasy Aces.[19]
The Season 3Ted 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".[20][21]
Comedian F. Chase Taylor was the main actor of the 1930s radio programStoopnagle 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 asStoopnagle's Tale is Twisted.[22]
In 2005,HarperCollins published the late humoristShel Silverstein'sRunny Babbit: A Billy Sook, 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").[23]
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:
He once proclaimed, "Hey,belly jeans" When he found a stash of jelly beans. But when he says hepepped in stew We'll tell him he should wipe his shoe.[24]
InD. H. Lawrence & Susan his Cow (1939), literary criticWilliam York Tindall described behavioral psychologists as "occupied with nothing more spiritual than pulling habits out of rats".[25] (This quip is commonly cited toDouglas Bush, who used it in a lecture[26] two years later.)
Spoonerisms are used incryptic crossword clues and use aplay on words, 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.[27]
Example:"Spooner's criminal with nurse finding hiding places." (4,3,6)
Solution: NOOK AND CRANNY (Spoonerism of CROOK AND NANNY).
The title of theVan der Graaf Generator's 1971 albumPawn Hearts resulted from a spoonerism byDavid Jackson, who said one time: "I'll go down to the studio and dub on some more porn hearts", meaning to say 'horn parts'.[28]
American indie rock musicianRitt Momney's name is a spoonerism of the name of the American politicianMitt Romney.[29]
American synthwave musicianCom Truise's name is a spoonerism of the name of American actorTom Cruise.[30]
On the 3 December 1950 episode ofThe 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.[39]
As complements tospoonerism,Douglas Hofstadter used thenonce wordskniferism andforkerism to refer to changing, respectively, the vowels or the final consonants of two syllables, giving them a new meaning.[41] 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";[42] and during a live radio broadcast in 1931, radio presenterHarry von Zell accidentally mispronouncing U.S. PresidentHerbert Hoover's name as "Hoobert Heever".[42][43]
^The definition of Spoonerism in the 1924 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is: "An accidental transposition of the initial sounds, or other parts, of two or more words."
^Brown, Keith (2006).Encyclopedia of Language & Logistics (2nd ed.). Elsevier Ltd.ISBN978-0-08-044854-1.
^https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59126/dalrev_vol46_iss4_pp457_465.pdf?sequence=1 : 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.
^"The art of spoonerism".France Alumni.The first written proof dates back to the 16th century, with François Rabelais: in his famous novel "Pantagruel", the writer plays with the sound similarity between "femme folle à la messe" (insane woman at mass) and "femme molle à la fesse" (woman with flabby buttocks). At the time, this joke was not only funny; it was a way to upset proper etiquette. Under a supposedly serious sentence, a salacious innuendo is hiding.
^Compare:"Obituary: Dr WA Spooner".The Manchester Gurdian. Guardian News & Media Limited. 1 September 2010 [1 September 1930]. Retrieved23 May 2022 – via The Guardian archive.In 1879 it was a favourite Oxford anecdote that Spooner from the pulpit gave out the first line of a well-known hymn as 'Kinkering Kongs their titles take.' [...] The anecdote is well enough authenticated, but according to most people who knew Spooner well that was the only "Spoonerism" he ever made – the essence of a "Spoonerism" being, of course, lack of intent, – though later when, thanks to indefatigable undergraduate and alas! graduates and dignified Fellows of colleges, the legends had become legion, he often used deliberately to 'indulge in metathesis,' to live up to his reputation.
^Bush, Douglas (1953)."Life, Letters, and Education". In Smithberger, Andrew T. (ed.).Essays British and American. Houghton-Mifflin. p. 465. Retrieved25 June 2023. originally given as a lecture in Massachetts at both Smith College (November 13, 1941) and Wellesley College (December 2, 1941).
^Shuchi (30 April 2009)."Spoonerisms".Crossword Unclued. Retrieved4 May 2025.
^Christopulos, J., and Smart, P.:Van der Graaf Generator – The Book, p. 128. Phil and Jim publishers, 2005.
^abSimonini, R. C. (December 1956). "Phonemic and Analogic Lapses in Radio and Television Speech".American Speech.31 (4). Duke University Press:252–263.doi:10.2307/453412.JSTOR453412.
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