tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 05 08:35:06 1999
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Re: spoonerism
: >The word for spoon is {baghneQ}. That's a spoonerism for "flat
: >rock", which would be {nagh beQ}.
:
: What's a spoonerism? Twisting letters?
:
: muHwI'
Merriam-Webster's CollegiateŽ Dictionary online:
spoo.ner.ism n [William A. Spooner d. 1930 Eng. clergyman &
educator] (1900): a transposition of usu. initial sounds of
two or more words (as in tons of soil for sons of toil)
The Britannica Online defines it as the
reversal of the initial letters or syllables of two or more words, such
as "I have a half-warmed fish in my mind" (for "half-formed wish") and
"a blushing crow" (for "a crushing blow"). The word was derived from
the name of William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a distinguished
Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford, a nervous
man who committed many "spoonerisms." Such transpositions are
sometimes made intentionally to produce comic effect.
Voragh