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/ˈspuː.nəɹˌɪ.zəm/ · noun
(linguistics, rhetoric) A play on words on a phrase in which the initial (usually consonantal) sounds of two or more of the main words are transposed..
Undergraduates at Oxford University were playfully fond of Spooner, whom they nicknamed "the Spoo". They also coined the term "spoonerism" around 1885, after Spooner had been a fellow at New College for almost twenty years. By 1892, his reputation for absentmindedness was well known; students came to New College expecting to hear a spoonerism.
Use spoonerism when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Spoonerism means (linguistics, rhetoric) A play on words on a phrase in which the initial (usually consonantal) sounds of two or more of the main words are transposed..
Common synonyms include marrowsky.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Undergraduates at Oxford University were playfully fond of Spooner, whom they nicknamed "the Spoo". They also coined the term "spoonerism" around 1885, after Spooner had been a fellow at New College for almost twenty years. By 1892, his reputation for absentmindedness was well known; students came to New College expecting to hear a spoonerism.
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