spoonerism
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˈspuːnərˌɪzəm/
:
spoonerismo
- Returning before dawn to pitch a car battery through the bar's plate glass, they didn't rest before putting forty miles between themselves and what Edward, indulging his taste for spoonerisms, called the cream of the sign.
Examples
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- Tongue twister, or spoonerism?
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So I suppose it should be Keel Naffrey if I were to work through my spoonerism properly here.
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- You don't know what a spoonerism is?
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Spoonerisms count as mangling, right?
Blog text (29) -
- I'll definitely have a tongue twister, because I don't even know what a spoonerism is.
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Phonological awareness was assessed through the use of three subtests of the PhAB (Frederickson et al., 1997): Alliteration, Rhyme, and Spoonerisms.
Academic text (2012) -
A spoonerism can turn a phrase like 'light a fire' into 'fight a liar,' which often makes people laugh.
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When he mistakenly said 'you have hissed all my mystery lessons,' he created a classic spoonerism that everyone enjoyed.
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Many comedians use spoonerisms in their routines to add a humorous twist to ordinary conversations.
Synonyms
7
3.7
A small mistake you make while speaking, like saying the wrong name
A wrong way of making sounds in music that makes them unclear
How Humorous
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Spoonerism is named after a man called Spooner, who was famous for accidentally 'swapping' the first sounds of words and making funny phrases like 'queer old dean' instead of 'dear old queen'. So a spoonerism is a speaking mistake where sounds are 'switched', often to create a humorous effect.