Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Spoonerism

  • Spoonerisms

    JMS PearceHull, England The name of the Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), warden of New College Oxford 1903–24, is preserved, some would say hallowed, for his involuntary invention of a verbal curiosity. Many found it amusing and the eponym Spoonerism came into colloquial use in Oxford from about 1885. Spoonerisms are the accidental transpositions of…