{"id":64873,"date":"2026-02-21T13:52:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=64873"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:52:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:52:03","slug":"spoonerisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=64873","title":{"rendered":"Spoonerisms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently, in a discussion with Elder DZ<\/strong>, I mentioned “Ion, the joon of Mupiter,” and it caused me to reflect on Spoonerisms<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ion, the Joon of Mupiter, as Interpreted by AI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spoonerisms: The Nuts and Bolts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A spoonerism <\/strong>is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and priest William Archibald Spooner<\/strong>, who reportedly commonly spoke in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples include saying “blushing crow” instead of “crushing blow”, or “runny babbit” instead of “bunny rabbit”. While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue, they can also be used intentionally as a word play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spoonerisms are named for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844\u20131930), Warden from 1903 to 1924 of New College, Oxford, who was allegedly susceptible to this mistake. The Oxford English Dictionary records the word spoonerism as early as 1900. Most of the quotations attributed to Spooner are apocryphal[1]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington, D.C. political comedy group Capitol Steps<\/strong> had a long-standing tradition of performing a routine named “Lirty Dies” during every performance, which features a typically 10-minute-long barrage of rapid-fire topical spoonerisms. A few examples over the years range from “Resident Pagan<\/strong>” (President Reagan) and the US’s periodic practice of “Licking their Peaders” (Picking their leaders) to the NSA “poopin’ on Snutin” (Snoopin’ on Putin) and “phugging everybody’s bones” (bugging everybody’s phones).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crosswords<\/strong>
Spoonerisms are used in cryptic crossword clues and use a play on words[…],<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example:<\/strong> “Spooner’s criminal with nurse finding hiding places.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution:<\/strong> NOOK AND CRANNY (Spoonerism of CROOK AND NANNY).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By \u00a9 User:Colin\u00a0\/\u00a0Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=73774407<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Spooner as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1898<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup> WLBOTT Wonders:<\/strong> Apocryphal<\/em> – Does that mean it appeared in the Bible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let Us Reflect and Mis-communicate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joe Meo and Rue-liet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Fluid Dynamics \/ Druid Romantics<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

[not exactly a Spoonerism, but I’m not trying very hard]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peace Thru Twine \/ Teeth In Pine<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026. wait a second\u2026 the phone is ringing\u2026 a call from Spousal Unit and Sally The Intern. I slept thru the pickup. Spousal Unit was volunteering at the hospital, helping Sally the Intern deliver apple sauce and pop cycles to the nurses station. My recent gentleman-farmer activities had worn me out, and I lay down for just five minutes\u2026. but then the phone rang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tensions escalated when I asked Spousal Unit<\/strong> to iron my Druid robes for my scheduled presentation to the Austin City Cryogenic Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Later, when it was Spousal Unit<\/strong>‘s turn to wear the robes, she wished to continue the discussion of time management issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Out Takes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Recently, in a discussion with Elder DZ, I mentioned “Ion, the joon of Mupiter,” and it caused me to reflect on Spoonerisms. Ion, the Joon of Mupiter, as Interpreted by AI: Spoonerisms: The Nuts and Bolts [1] WLBOTT Wonders: Apocryphal – Does that mean it appeared in the Bible? Let Us Reflect and Mis-communicate Joe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scholarship-erudition"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64873"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64892,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64873\/revisions\/64892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}