SPOONERISM

A ‘spoonerism’ is when a speaker accidentally mixes up the initial sounds or letters of two words in a phrase. The result is usually humorous.

Examples of spoonerisms include:

• ‘blushing crow’ (instead of ‘crushing blow’)

• ‘hair bug’ (instead of ‘bear hug’)

• ‘flock of bats’ (instead of ‘block of flats’)

• ‘by mad’ (instead of ‘my bad’)

• ‘shake a tower’ (instead of ‘take a shower’)

• ‘bound sight’ (instead of ‘sound bite’)

• ‘bowel feast’ (instead of ‘fowl beast’)

• ‘cop porn’ (instead of ‘popcorn’)