Spoonerism

Answers.com: spoonerism

Rev. William Archibald Spooner

I knew that in every language this phenomenon happens: take two words and change some of their letters and form two different ones. Or, in addition to that form different phrases with different meanings, making, normally, fun of the situation. I do this sometimes in Portuguese, my mother language, but not yet in English because it is not fluent enough for me. What I didn't know was that his type of construction had a name: spoonerism.

Spoonerism was named, according to Answers.com "[After William Archibald Spooner (1844–-1930), British cleric and scholar.]"

Here are some spoonerisms (all attributed to Mr. Spooner):

• We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.
• The Lord is a shoving leopard ["loving shepherd"].
• It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.
• Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?
• When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!
• Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

As I told in another post, living and learning...