Spoonerism

Spoonerism (plural Spoonerisms)

1. Alternative letter-case form of spoonerism.
   • 1976 July, Oxford Diocesan Magazine, page 15, column 1; quoted in “spoonerism”, in R[obert] W[illiam] Burchfield, editor, A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, volumes IV (Se–Z), Oxford, Oxon: At the Clarendon Press, 1986, page 434, column 3:

     I am not going to put on any weight until I’m fifty, when I shall allow myself to become matronly, ready to be a follower of ‘soda and gobbly matrons’, as enjoined by the marriage service. (A good Spoonerism that, created quite involuntarily by my mother some years ago.)

   • 1978, Gore Vidal, Kalki, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 30:

     Dr. Ashok suffered from a mild form of metaphasis. He made Spoonerisms.

   • 2011, Ann Treneman, “MI5 was watching Katia? So were many male MPs”, in Dave and Nick: The Year of the Honeymoon…and Beyond, London: The Robson Press, Biteback Publishing Ltd, →ISBN:

     I tried to concentrate on this very tiny but very fascinating scandal-ette involving a leggy blonde Russian researcher, but Jude Law – and Spoonerisms – kept distracting me […] Now Nick Herbert had just been asked about cuts to front line policing. ‘I don’t accept that those are c****,’ he said, immediately correcting himself.