Officiating at a wedding in the late 19th century, the Rev. William Archibald Spooner said to the shy and hesitant bridegroom, "Son, it is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."
You read that right. He said it wrong. The good Anglican priest and Oxford University scholar, who was known for being genial, kindly, and hospitable, had quite the reputation for saying almost the right thing, but not quite. He once said to a stranger seated in the wrong place: "I believe you're occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?"
He told his congregation, "The Lord is a shoving leopard."
These linguistic somersaults are called spoonerisms, named for the master of them all, the Rev. Spooner. Admit it! You've sometimes done it yourself. Instead of being embarrassed by the twist of the tongue, laugh. Start here with these spoonerisms culled from Rinkworks.com and Reader's Digest.
Raising a toast to Her Royal Highness Queen Victoria, the Rev. Spooner exclaimed, "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"
"Those girls are sin twisters."
To the college secretary, Spooner inquired of the dean, "Is the bean dizzy?"
Spooner was very patriotic. During World War I he said, "When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out."
"The enemy fled quickly from the ears and sparrows."
"She joins this club over my bed doddy."
Spooner introduced the old revival hymn as "Shall We Rather At the Giver?"
"There is no peace in a home where a dinner swells."
To a student who missed his history class, Spooner angrily said, "You have hissed my mystery lectures; you have tasted the whole worm."
At a naval review Spooner marveled at "this vast display of cattle ships and bruisers."
Visiting a friend's country cottage, he exclaimed, "You have a nosy little cook here."
Author and lecturer Richard Lederer says the English language is ripe for spoonerisms because it has more than three times as many words as any other language--well over 600,000. And English just gets bigger, growing by about 450 new words a year. Says Lederer, "Spooner gave us tinglish errors and English terrors at the same time."
And as Reader's Digest says: So let us applaud that gentle man who lent his tame to the nerm. May sod rest his goal.
You read that right. He said it wrong. The good Anglican priest and Oxford University scholar, who was known for being genial, kindly, and hospitable, had quite the reputation for saying almost the right thing, but not quite. He once said to a stranger seated in the wrong place: "I believe you're occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?"
He told his congregation, "The Lord is a shoving leopard."
These linguistic somersaults are called spoonerisms, named for the master of them all, the Rev. Spooner. Admit it! You've sometimes done it yourself. Instead of being embarrassed by the twist of the tongue, laugh. Start here with these spoonerisms culled from Rinkworks.com and Reader's Digest.
Raising a toast to Her Royal Highness Queen Victoria, the Rev. Spooner exclaimed, "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"
"Those girls are sin twisters."
To the college secretary, Spooner inquired of the dean, "Is the bean dizzy?"
Spooner was very patriotic. During World War I he said, "When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out."
"The enemy fled quickly from the ears and sparrows."
"She joins this club over my bed doddy."
Spooner introduced the old revival hymn as "Shall We Rather At the Giver?"
"There is no peace in a home where a dinner swells."
To a student who missed his history class, Spooner angrily said, "You have hissed my mystery lectures; you have tasted the whole worm."
At a naval review Spooner marveled at "this vast display of cattle ships and bruisers."
Visiting a friend's country cottage, he exclaimed, "You have a nosy little cook here."
Author and lecturer Richard Lederer says the English language is ripe for spoonerisms because it has more than three times as many words as any other language--well over 600,000. And English just gets bigger, growing by about 450 new words a year. Says Lederer, "Spooner gave us tinglish errors and English terrors at the same time."
And as Reader's Digest says: So let us applaud that gentle man who lent his tame to the nerm. May sod rest his goal.
