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| Another example is an incident that happened to veteran newscaster (and ] watch pitchman) ]. During an interview on '']'', he stated that on a radio show, he was making reference to a fellow journalist as a "noted woman columnist" but accidentally said "noted woolen communist". | Another example is an incident that happened to veteran newscaster (and ] watch pitchman) ]. During an interview on '']'', he stated that on a radio show, he was making reference to a fellow journalist as a "noted woman columnist" but accidentally said "noted woolen communist". | ||
| An announcer was quoted as saying, "All the world was thrilled by the marriage of "the Duck and Doochess of Windsor."<!--- Undergoing whitelist request: <ref name="MobyD"></ref> ---><ref name="KS">Kermit Schaefer recordings</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | During a live broadcast in 1931, radio presenter ] accidentally mispronounced the ]'s name |
||
| Similarly, word regarding an impending presidential veto came from "a high White Horse souse."<!--- Undergoing whitelist request: <ref name="MobyD"></ref> ---><ref name="KS">Kermit Schaefer recordings</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | During a live broadcast in 1931, radio presenter ] accidentally mispronounced the ]'s name, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Hoobert Heever." | ||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 14:50, 6 December 2008
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A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.
While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle, they are often used intentionally as a play on words.
Examples
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." Spooner claimed that "The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take" (in reference to a hymn) was his sole spoonerism. Most spoonerisms were probably never uttered by William Spooner himself, but rather made up by colleagues and students as a pastime. Richard Lederer, calling "Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take" (with an alternate spelling) one of the "few" authenticated Spoonerisms, dates it to 1879, and gives nine examples "attributed to Spooner, most of them spuriously". They are:
- "Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (referring to Queen Victoria)
- "Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (customary to kiss)
- "The Lord is a shoving leopard." (a loving shepherd)
- "A blushing crow." (crushing blow)
- "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle)
- "You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." (lighting a fire)
- "Is the bean dizzy?" (dean busy)
- "Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet." (occupying my pew...show me to another seat)
- "You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted a whole worm. Please leave Oxford on the next town drain." (missed...history, wasted...term, down train)
Modern use
In modern terms, a spoonerism is any changing of sounds in this manner. A well-known example is "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy" (variously attributed to W. C. Fields, Tom Waits, and most commonly Dorothy Parker), which not only shifts the beginning sounds of the word lobotomy, but the entire phrase "frontal lobotomy". The preceding phrase was further developed by Dean Martin who said, "I would rather have a FREE bottle in front of me than a PRE-frontal lobotomy."
Another modern use of spoonerisms is the children's book Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook, which is the last children's book by Shel Silverstein.
In a situation where profanity is unsuitable, a spoonerism is sometimes used to tone down the intensity of the expression or just to bend the rules. "Bass ackwards" (for ass backwards), "nucking futs" (for fucking nuts), and "shake a tit" (itself a risqué phrase, for take a shit) are all common examples of these kinds of spoonerisms. For example, there have been several rock albums called Cunning Stunts.
The Capitol Steps, a political satire group, use spoonerisms in a segment of their show called "Lirty Dies and Scicious Vandals".
American Country-Western singer/comedian Archie Campbell is famous for his stories of RinderCella (Cinderella), in which the princess "slopped her dripper" (dropped her slipper), from a similar story told by an amateur comedian in the 1970s on The Gong Show, in which she "sloshed her lipper."
Colonel Stoopnagle (real name F. Chase Taylor) of the 1930s radio show Stoopnagle and Budd used spoonerisms frequently in his show, and in 1945 published a book, My Tale Is Twisted, consisting of forty-four "spoonerized" versions of well-known children's stories (such as "Beeping Sleauty" for "Sleeping Beauty"). The book was republished in 2001 by Stone and Scott Publishers as Stoopnagle's Tale is Twisted.
In a deliberate spoonerism, Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson once stated, "Speaking as a Christian, I find the Apostle Paul appealing and the Apostle Peale appalling" (in reference to Norman Vincent Peale, who had opposed his candidacy).
Kniferism and forkerism
Douglas Hofstadter uses the nonce terms kniferism and forkerism to refer to interchanging the nuclei and codas, respectively, of syllables. (For example a British television newsreader once referred to the police at a crime scene removing a 'hypodeemic nerdle'.) Spoonerisms, on the other hand, exchange the onsets.
Another example is an incident that happened to veteran newscaster (and Timex watch pitchman) John Cameron Swayze. During an interview on The Mike Douglas Show, he stated that on a radio show, he was making reference to a fellow journalist as a "noted woman columnist" but accidentally said "noted woolen communist".
An announcer was quoted as saying, "All the world was thrilled by the marriage of "the Duck and Doochess of Windsor."
Similarly, word regarding an impending presidential veto came from "a high White Horse souse."
During a live broadcast in 1931, radio presenter Harry von Zell accidentally mispronounced the then US President's name, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Hoobert Heever."
See also
References
- "Names make news". Time. 1928-10-29. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Bartlett, John (1992) . Justin Kaplan (ed.). Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (16th ed.). Little, Brown and Company. p. 533. ISBN 0316082775.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Quinion, Michael (2007-07-28). "Spoonerism". World Wide Words. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - ^ Lederer, Richard (1988). Get Thee to a Punnery. Charleston, South Carolina: Wyrick & Co. pp. 137–148.
- "Stoopnagle's Tale is Twisted, by Ken James".
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessdaymonth=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - Hoekstra, Dave. "A former president's gag order; Ford's symposium examines humor in the Oval Office", Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 28, 1986, pg. 22. Retrieved from Proquest Newspapers on Sept. 17, 2007.
- ^ Kermit Schaefer recordings
External links
- fabelbish.com, the spoonerism generator
- Lists of spoonerisms at fun-with-words.com
- German Schüttelreim poem