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Spoonerism

· from English (after William Archibald Spooner)

What is a spoonerism?

A spoonerism is an accidental or deliberate swap of the initial sounds of two words, producing a new, usually funny phrase.

It is named after Oxford don William Archibald Spooner, to whom many such slips were (often apocryphally) attributed. Thai has a well-developed spoonerism game called คำผวน kham phuan, often used for risqué humour. Spoonerisms show how speech planning works in the brain.

Examples

You have hissed all my mystery lectures (missed all my history lectures); a blushing crow (a crushing blow); Thai คำผวน kham phuan wordplay

Kungfucius says: A spoonerism is when your mouth gets ahead of your brain and takes the first letters with it.