Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. 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.
Wiktionary
- n. A play on words on a phrase in which the initial (usually consonantal) sounds of two or more of the main words are transposed.
WordNet 3.0
- n. transposition of initial consonants in a pair of words
Etymologies
- Named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844-1930), who is supposed to have habitually made such slip-ups. (Wiktionary)
- After William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), British cleric and scholar. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This is curious, for it seems, on the evidence of those who knew him best, that the spoonerism was a verbal felicity which he did not perpetrate.”
“He looked particularly fetching dressed up as the "Gairy Fodmother" in a Canterbury convent's "spoonerism" Halloween party.”
“The only spoonerism which is possibly authentic comes in his announcement of a hymn as "Kinkering kongs.”
“RUCerious Brought to you by MalWart your source for cheap plastic crap says: continued after fat finger … also enjoy a good spoonerism like rucking fepublicans …”
“I'd like you to write a riddle starting: What's the difference between - in which the answer involves a spoonerism.”
“You know a spoonerism is when interchange consonant sounds.”
“I'd like you to write a riddle starting: What's the difference between, in which the answer involves a spoonerism.”
“I asked you to write a riddle starting with what's the different between in which the answer involves a spoonerism, where you interchange the initial consonant sounds of two words.”
“You gave us a challenge last week, which we haven't had one of these in the while, the spoonerism.”
“Can you briefly just explain the spoonerism conceit?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spoonerism’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 109 more...
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My Strange Kitchen
It seems that whenever I look away, new gadgets and devices and tools and dishes and utensils and ingredients are multiplying in my kitchen drawers and my cabinets.
tectonic plates, spoonbill, fork in the road, bowl haircut, whisk away, greasy spoon, melting pot, pan flute, platelets, spooning, pitchfork, jackknife and 101 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 90 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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WF - Word Formation Words
Classes of words and types of word formation
sniglet, protologism, portmanteau word, blend, telescope-word, frankenword, double-entendre, compound, derivative, palindrome, spoonerism, malapropism and 152 more...
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Mistakes Were Made
scanno, typo, catachresis, spoonerism, lapsus linguae, lapsus calami, mispronunciation, faux pas, friendly fire, erratum, divorce, mea culpa and 19 more...
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HollieGolightly's list
indigo, flippant, quaint, ebullience, subterfuge, conspicuous, surreptitiously, kodachrome, doppelganger, hullabaloo, nabob, motley and 21 more...
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Neologistics
Basically this is a "words about words" list with a focus on neologism generation in all its various forms.
wordplay, paronomasia, madeupical, logodaedaly, onomatopoeic, verbification, nominalization, recontextualization, spoonerism, typo recycling, sloganeer, wordsmith and 59 more...
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Sophaloaf's list
Favorites!
belle, starfish, photography, buddha, dinosaur, floccinaucinihili..., hypoallergenic, sailor, gorgeous, adhesive, imagination, artichokes and 55 more...
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INTERP - verbal blunders
Speech errors and speech disfluencies
boner, gaffe, malapropism, Freudian slip, blooper, speech disfluency, phonological anti..., phonological pers..., gibberish, repetition, blend, slip of the tongue and 18 more...
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-isms
fascism, anarchism, satanism, racism, racialism, nordicism, nazism, socialism, catholicism, national socialism, paganism, hinduism and 67 more...
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You Don't Say
Language disorders, disabilities, and unusual demonstrations.
aphasia, aphonia, dysarthria, glossolalia, paraphasia, alexia, polymicrogyria, logorrhea, stutter, spoonerism, agraphia, malapropism and 54 more...
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WF - Words from Proper Names
bowdlerize, boycott, caesarean, lynch, pasteurize, sadist, sandwich, hoover, braille, wellington, cardigan, macintosh and 11 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spoonerism.
Prolagus Spoonerism. May 30, 2010
wordlover42 I once received a chain email full of spoonerisms.. my favorite was a waiter trying to say " Let me show you to your seats" that instead said " Let me sew you to your sheets". Jun 24, 2009
tbtabby "Haila Stoddard, playing Pauline on The Secret Storm was supposed to say to her mother, 'I always thought she was a bit of a witch.' Instead, there on live TV, in front of millions, she said, 'whit of a bitch.' Her astounded mom, instead of going on with her regular lines, responded, 'Oh dear, Pauline, you didn't mean to say that!' It took the actors ten minutes to get back to the script."
-Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader May 21, 2009
bilby
Once a big molicepan
Saw a bittle lum,
Sitting on the sturbcone
Chewing gubble bum.
'Hi!' said the molicpan.
'Bitter simmie gome.'
'Tot on your nintype!'
Said the bittle lum.
- Edward Lear, 'Once a Big Molicepan'. Apr 12, 2009
tbtabby It's very hard to fight a liar in roaring pain. Mar 24, 2009
johnmperry Q What is the difference between a chorus-girl and a tramp?
A A chorus-girl has natty knickers.
(Probably only meaningful to British English speakers). Aug 18, 2008
johnmperry Q What is the difference between a sandpiper and a baby?
A A sandpiper flits along the shore. Aug 18, 2008
johnmperry someone I worked with once referred to "the whole matching shoot" Jul 24, 2008
skipvia I understand the good Reverend once complained of addressing beery wenches each Sunday morning. Jun 21, 2008
asativum I heard these attributed to the Rev. Spooner himself:
"The Lord is a shoving leopard to his flock."
and something about the pleasures of riding a well-boiled icicle.
Jun 21, 2008
plethora A shining wit. Jun 21, 2008
johnmperry a cunning stunt Jun 21, 2008
gangerh a googol of geese Jan 30, 2008
bobodod ...I ever heard, was when a friend was reading a copy of "Mother Earth News" magazine and, turning to relate something interesting, instead called the magazine "Mother Nerth Ewws". Jun 25, 2007