Re: spoonerism

["William H. Martin" <whm2m@server1.mail.virginia.edu>]

On Fri, 5 Feb 1999 08:46:23 -0800 (PST) Steven Boozer 
<sboozer@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:

> : >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 Collegiate® 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. 
 
I hope that no one is offended by this, and maybe this is an 
urban legend (since I've never actually seen this group), but 
I'm told there really is an all-female gymnastic performance 
group that actually calls itself "The Cunning Stunts" and I've 
heard that both versions of the name equally apply.
 
> Voragh

charghwI' 'utlh