Thursday, January 24, 2008

Word of the week

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

Origin: 1895–1900; after W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), English clergyman noted for such slips

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?”


--All this thank you to the lovely, dictionary.com

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