spoonerism

American  

[spoo-nuh-riz-uhm] / ˈspu nəˌrɪz əm /

noun

1. the transposition of initial or other sounds of words, usually by accident, as in a blushing crow for a crushing blow.

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spoonerism British  

/ ˈspuːnəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. the transposition of the initial consonants or consonant clusters of a pair of words, often resulting in an amusing ambiguity of meaning, such as hush my brat for brush my hat

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spoonerism Cultural  

1. A reversal of sounds in two words, with humorous effect. Spoonerisms were named after William Spooner, an English clergyman and scholar of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In one spoonerism attributed to him, he meant “May I show you to another seat?” but said, “May I sew you to another sheet?”

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Etymology

Origin of spoonerism

First recorded in 1895–1900; after W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), English clergyman noted for such slips; -ism

Example Sentences

Still running — deadline Monday night, Nov. 29: Our contest for spoonerism jokes.

From Washington Post • Nov. 24, 2021

This week: Write an original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism, the transposition of the beginnings of different words, as in the entries above from our 1995 contest.

From Washington Post • Nov. 18, 2021

In a spoonerism you're transposing two sounds from two different words.

From Slate • Oct. 16, 2012

But, on his golden wedding celebration, he stoutly maintained that "Kinquering Congs" was his one and only spoonerism, that it was a slip of his tongue.

From Time Magazine Archive

A deliberate spoonerism for creeping featurism, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.