Spoonerisms

One Christmas Day my grandmother Miemie McGregor looked around the crowded dining table and in her earnest and kindly way asked, "Would anyone like some more most rutton?"

For a moment she looked perplexed at the loots of hafter which greeted her question, then she lapsed into a figgle of gits as she realised what she had said.

Granny had just committed an error of speech called a "spoonerism" after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, an Oxford University Don who, deservedly or not, gained the reputation of switching consonants, vowels or morphemes, as in the mistake my Gran made that Christmas Day.

It is a common form of speech error, now very often deliberately made for humorous effect.

The Reverend Spooner's alleged errors of speech have been the stuff of stories and jokes for years. He himself denied that he was prone to such mistakes, but did admit to having once announced a hymn as "Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take."

Another gaff attributed to him which might though be apocryphal, is the call for "three cheers for our queer old dean", by which was meant "our dear old Queen (Victoria)".

The Rev Dr Spooner stayed at New College for more than 60 years in carious vapacities, and was known for making other speech mistakes, such as inviting a man to a function to welcome a new archaeology fellow. The man said "But I am the new archaeology fellow", to which Spooner is alleged to have replied, "Never mind, come all the same."

Dr Spooner was born in 1844 and died in August 1930, a man respected for his "scholarship, devotion to duty, and wisdom" even though his fame is based more on his lapses of speech.

Some of the more famous of these attributed to him, though they might have originated from his students, are:

• "The Lord is a shoving leopard"

• "a half-warmed fish"

• "Is the bean dizzy?"

Of course, generations of schoolboys have giggled over the spoonerisation (to coin a phrase) of the title of Charles Dickens' famous novel, A Sale of Two Titties, not to mention the "cunning stunts" of the can-can dancers (or acrobats, depending on who's telling it)..

Indeed the spoonerism has been used to disguise risqué statements like "he's not a pheasant plucker," or "she showed me her tool kits."

Spoonerisms have become so popular there is even a FaceBook page for them.

The inventor of Magnetic Poetry, Dave Kapell on his blog Dave's Blog (http://magpo.blogs.com/davesblog/2009/07/naughty-spoonerisms.html) shares his grandmother's favourite poem containing spoonerisms:

"I'm not the fig plucker,
Nor the fig plucker's son,
But I'll pluck your figs
'Til the fig plucker comes."

Some spoonersisms have entered English as almost accepted phrases, like "one swell foop."

A graffito on a wall in Johannesburg had this rather extended pun/spoonerism, which made sense in the rather puritanical atmosphere of 1970s South Africa: "People in grass houses shouldn't get stoned."

Then there are the more commonplace ones like "wave the sails" and "Britannia waives the rules."

Maybe Brangeliina should have thought twice about calling their child Shiloh Pitt, though.

And if you like this Hub you can always make a comprinter putout of it to hit the cooking fat with.

Or you could just Friar Tuck.

The Reverend Spooner's alleged errors of speech have been the stuff of stories and jokes for years. He himself denied that he was prone to such mistakes, but did admit to having once announced a hymn as "Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take."

Another gaff attributed to him which might though be apocryphal, is the call for "three cheers for our queer old dean", by which was meant "our dear old Queen (Victoria)".

The Rev Dr Spooner stayed at New College for more than 60 years in carious vapacities, and was known for making other speech mistakes, such as inviting a man to a function to welcome a new archaeology fellow. The man said "But I am the new archaeology fellow", to which Spooner is alleged to have replied, "Never mind, come all the same."

Dr Spooner was born in 1844 and died in August 1930, a man respected for his "scholarship, devotion to duty, and wisdom" even though his fame is based more on his lapses of speech.

Some of the more famous of these attributed to him, though they might have originated from his students, are:

• "The Lord is a shoving leopard"

• "a half-warmed fish"

• "Is the bean dizzy?"

Of course, generations of schoolboys have giggled over the spoonerisation (to coin a phrase) of the title of Charles Dickens' famous novel, A Sale of Two Titties, not to mention the "cunning stunts" of the can-can dancers (or acrobats, depending on who's telling it)..

Indeed the spoonerism has been used to disguise risqué statements like "he's not a pheasant plucker," or "she showed me her tool kits."

Spoonerisms have become so popular there is even a FaceBook page for them.

The inventor of Magnetic Poetry, Dave Kapell on his blog Dave's Blog (http://magpo.blogs.com/davesblog/2009/07/naughty-spoonerisms.html) shares his grandmother's favourite poem containing spoonerisms:

"I'm not the fig plucker,
Nor the fig plucker's son,
But I'll pluck your figs
'Til the fig plucker comes."

Some spoonersisms have entered English as almost accepted phrases, like "one swell foop."

A graffito on a wall in Johannesburg had this rather extended pun/spoonerism, which made sense in the rather puritanical atmosphere of 1970s South Africa: "People in grass houses shouldn't get stoned."

Then there are the more commonplace ones like "wave the sails" and "Britannia waives the rules."

Maybe Brangeliina should have thought twice about calling their child Shiloh Pitt, though.

And if you like this Hub you can always make a comprinter putout of it to hit the cooking fat with.

Or you could just Friar Tuck.

The text and all images on this page, unless otherwise indicated, are by Tony McGregor who hereby asserts his copyright on the material. Should you wish to use any of the text or images feel free to do so with proper attribution and, if possible, a link back to this page. Thank you.

© Tony McGregor 2009