A spoonerism is a verbal mistake that mixes up the initial sounds or letters of words. For example: ket of seas = set of keys
The expression comes from the name of the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844 -1930) who was Dean and Warder of New College, Oxford. He is said to have made mistakes like this often.
Here are some alleged examples of his original spoonerisms:
a scoop of Boy Trouts (a troop of Boy Scouts)
cattle ships and bruisers (battle ships and cruisers)
a well boiled icicle (a well-oiled bicycle)
You have hissed all my mystery lectures and tasted a whole worm. (You have missed all my history lectures and wasted a whole term.)
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About Angela Boothroyd
Sounds like Reverend Spooner kept things interesting for his parishioners
“Spoonerism” is a new term for me. Who knew there is an official name for my drain bramage?
Mike Korner recently posted..Advanced Blogging Lessons Without Making All The Mistakes Yourself
Hi Mike,
I love spoonerisms. My youngest daughter is famous within my family for making mistakes like this frequently when she was young – she’s eighteen now but many of them were so good that we still use them in our conversations
Spoonerisms come quite naturally to a lot of people and it’s fun switching letters or syllables around. I have been recently / tending some sweets / from the @ispoonerisms twitter acct to encourage more. It’s quite funny when sometimes, a new word comes which sounds hilarious.
iSpoonerisms recently posted..My Nosey Cook