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spoonerism - 4 dictionary results

spoon⋅er⋅ism

  [spoo-nuh-riz-uhm]
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–noun
the transposition of initial or other sounds of words, usually by accident, as in a blushing crow for a crushing blow.
Origin:
1895–1900; after W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), English clergyman noted for such slips; see -ism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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spoon·er·ism   (spōō'nə-rĭz'əm)   
n.  A transposition of sounds of two or more words, especially a ludicrous one, such as Let me sew you to your sheet for Let me show you to your seat.

[After William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), British cleric and scholar.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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spoonerism

A reversal of sounds in two words, with humorous effect. Spoonerisms were named after William Spooner, an English clergyman and scholar of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In one spoonerism attributed to him, he meant “May I show you to another seat?” but said, “May I sew you to another sheet?”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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spoonerism 
1900, but perhaps as early as 1885, involuntary transposition of sounds in two or more words (cf. "a well-boiled icicle" for "a well-oiled bicycle;" "scoop of boy trouts" for "troop of Boy Scouts"), in allusion to the Rev. William A. Spooner (1844-1930), warden of New College, Oxford, who was famous for such mistakes.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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