A spoonerism is the transposition of the beginning syllables of two or more words – often for comic effect. The unfortunate fellow who gave his name to this strange speech impediment was one Reverend William Archibald Spooner, a one-time Warden of New College, Oxford. He has had many sayings attributed to him, many of which are sadly untrue. The only verified entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is “The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer”.
There are several well-known (and sadly, contrived) examples in English, including the beautiful “You have hissed all my mystery lectures, were caught fighting a liar in the quad and have tasted two whole worms”. I paraphrase a bit here but then so does everyone else.
For those of you with way too much time on your hands, why not try the spoonerism generator online at Fabelbish?
Spooner may not have been the old fool he is often claimed to be but he does have one quite astoundingly daft quote associated with him: “Tell me, was it you or your brother who was killed in the war?”.
I..er..well..it’s…um… Oh, OK – I went out later than expected and anything what I rote thereafter would have been complete nonsense (as opposed to incomplete nonsense, I suppose). Rule 1: Don’t drink and blog – right kids?
You ain’t so mucking fuch! Siss on your pister. Your and your whole famn damily have been bucked by a fuzzard. So go in your own jack yard and back off.