Incubator escapee wiki

Spoonerism

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates

File:People's Vote March 2018-10-20 - BUCK FREXIT I LOVEU.jpg
An example of spoonerism on a protest placard in London: "Buck Frexit" instead of "Fuck Brexit"

A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase.<ref name="HirschKett2002">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Efn These are named after the Oxford don and priest William Archibald Spooner, who reportedly commonly spoke in this way.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.

The first known spoonerisms were published by the 16th-century author François Rabelais and termed {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>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.</ref> In his novel Pantagruel, he wrote {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("insane woman at Mass, woman with flabby buttocks").<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

EtymologyEdit

File:William Archibald Spooner Vanity Fair 1898-04-21.jpg
Spooner as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1898

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.<ref name="Time">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Toledo">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Compare:Template:Cite news</ref> The Oxford English Dictionary records the word spoonerism as early as 1900.<ref name="oed|spoonerism">Template:Cite OED</ref> 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...<ref>"Every Schoolboy Knows", The Times, Dec 8, 1921, pg. 7.</ref>

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, admitted 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".<ref>'"Spoonerisms" a Legend' in Daily Herald 28/9/1928.</ref>

In 1937, The Times quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used "Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline.<ref>The Times, 29 October 1937, pg. 9.</ref>

A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky or morowski, purportedly after an 18th-century Polish count who suffered from the same impediment.<ref>Chambers Dictionary 1993 Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="oed|spoonerism" />

ExamplesEdit

File:Charles Workman Vanity Fair 31 March 1910.jpg
Caricature of Charles 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<ref name="Time" /> that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" (in reference to a hymn)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> was his sole spoonerism. Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself but rather invented by colleagues and students as a pastime.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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".<ref name="punnery">Template:Cite book</ref> They are as follows:

  • "Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (while giving a toast at a dinner, which Queen Victoria was also attending)<ref name="punnery" />
  • "Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (as opposed to "customary to kiss")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "The Lord is a shoving leopard." (instead of "a loving shepherd")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "A blushing crow." ("crushing blow")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "A well-boiled icicle" ("well-oiled bicycle")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." ("lighting a fire")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "Is the bean dizzy?" ("Dean busy")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet." ("Someone is occupying my pew. Please show me to another seat.")<ref name="punnery" />
  • "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.")<ref name="punnery" />

UsageEdit

In modern terms, spoonerism generally refers to any changing of sounds in this manner.

ComedyEdit

  • 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • The Washington, D.C. political comedy group Capitol Steps<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> had a long-standing tradition of performing a routine named "Lirty Dies"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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).

  • 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

LiteratureEdit

  • 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • In 2005, HarperCollins published the late humorist Shel Silverstein's Runny 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").<ref name="Rogak">Template:Citation</ref>
  • 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:

Template:Poem quote

  • 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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (This quip is commonly cited to Douglas Bush, who used it in a lecture<ref>Template:Cite book originally given as a lecture at Smith College (Nov 13 1941) and Wellesley College (Dec 2 1941), Massachusetts.</ref> two years later.)

CrosswordsEdit

Spoonerisms are used in cryptic crossword clues and use a play 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Example: "Spooner's criminal with nurse finding hiding places." (4,3,6)

Solution: NOOK AND CRANNY (Spoonerism of CROOK AND NANNY).

MusicEdit

  • The title of the Van der Graaf Generator's 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'.<ref>Christopulos, J., and Smart, P.: Van der Graaf Generator – The Book, page 128. Phil and Jim publishers, 2005.</ref>
  • American indie rock musician Ritt Momney's name is a spoonerism of the name of the American politician Mitt Romney.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • American synthwave musician Com Truise's name is a spoonerism of the name of American actor Tom Cruise.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="cooking">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a spoonerism of LA hip-hop music collective "Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All", which he was a former member of.

RadioEdit

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

False etymologyEdit

Spoonerisms are used sometimes in false etymologies. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, some wrongly believe that the English word butterfly derives from Template:Emutter Template:Emy.<ref name="language">Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. Template:ISBN / Template:ISBN [1]</ref>Template:Rp

Kniferisms and forkerismsEdit

As complements to spoonerism, Douglas Hofstadter used the nonce words kniferism and forkerism to refer to changing, respectively, the vowels or the final consonants of two syllables, giving them a new meaning.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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";<ref name="Simonini">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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".<ref name="Simonini" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See alsoEdit

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

NotesEdit

Template:Notelist

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project links

Template:Figures of speech Template:Portal bar

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Spoonerism&oldid=18633"