22 Jul
July 22nd is Spooner’s Day, named after Reverend William Archibald Spooner (born at London, England, July 22, 1844, warden of New College, Oxford, 1903–24, died at Oxford, England, Aug 29, 1930) who had the terrible habit with the 'slip of his tongue'. No, he wasn’t saying bad words, he just wasn’t saying the words in the right order. Instead of saying, 'There goes a bunny rabbit, 'Spooner would often slip and say, 'There goes a runny babbit.'
A day to remember the scholarly man whose accidental transpositions gave us blushing crow (for crushing blow), tons of soil (for sons of toil), queer old dean (for dear old queen), swell foop (for fell swoop) and half-warmed fish (for half-formed wish).
Spoonerism
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. For example saying 'The Lord is a shoving leopard' instead of 'The Lord is a loving shepherd'. While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words. The term 'Spoonerism' was well established by 1921 thanks to an article in The Times.
A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky, purportedly after a Polish count who suffered from the same impediment.
Try talking in spoonerisms for the day and see if it doesn’t make your own transpositions send you rolling on the floor. This is not a day to make fun, but to smile at the twist of the tongue that made him famous and I'm sure he wouldn't mind putting a smappy dile on your face.
A day to remember the scholarly man whose accidental transpositions gave us blushing crow (for crushing blow), tons of soil (for sons of toil), queer old dean (for dear old queen), swell foop (for fell swoop) and half-warmed fish (for half-formed wish).
Spoonerism
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. For example saying 'The Lord is a shoving leopard' instead of 'The Lord is a loving shepherd'. While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words. The term 'Spoonerism' was well established by 1921 thanks to an article in The Times.
A spoonerism is also known as a marrowsky, purportedly after a Polish count who suffered from the same impediment.
Try talking in spoonerisms for the day and see if it doesn’t make your own transpositions send you rolling on the floor. This is not a day to make fun, but to smile at the twist of the tongue that made him famous and I'm sure he wouldn't mind putting a smappy dile on your face.