Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-31
SPOONERISMS
CPOONERISMS7 is a recognized and &C

SPOONERISN1S7 is a recognized and ac-
- cepted word used in the best circles of
English society, even though it has not yet
found its way into the dictionaries Derived
from the last name of the Rev. William A.
Spooner, warden of New College, Oxford it
characterlzes curious sort of blunder that
IS habitual with that man,-the unconscious
interchanging of the first letters or syllables
OF words with what are often direfully hui
morous results.
The most famous of all the stories about
him tells how he once Numbered out from
: the pulpit, Jehovah was not on the side of
"conquering Kings
AT another time he convulsed his audience
by boldly stating that he held concealed
half wormed fish (half formed wish in his
bosom.
At university dinner given at the time
Of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee he
proposed "Three cheers for the queer old
DEAN and they were given with will. in
honor not only of the dear old Queen whom
he had wished to remember, but of the queer
old dean who had forgotten himself.
Exasperated by a would be humorist
among his pupils, he informed him that he
had "weeble fit; not meaning any new
disease, but the old, old complaint of feeble
wit.
To another who had been mainly occupied
in wasting two terms at college he COM
planned, "You have been incorrigibly lazy
and, to topit all, you have tasted two worms"
On another occasion, in giving out the
hymn to his congregation, he transformed
the title, This world is all feeting show
into. This world is all floating Shoe
In quoting the familiar text, Bow not thy
knee to an idol, he made it, Bow not thine
eye to a needle
One day he discovered stranger sitting
in his family pew. Madam whispered he,
"do YOU intend to occupew this pie?'
Also he could blunder as blithesomely in
action as in speech. One windy day, as he
was walking down High-st. in Oxford, his hat
blew off. He stopped to pick it up; but at
that very moment a hen hurried by. He set
off in full pursuit, and never stopped until
he had caught hold of the luckless hen on
Magdalen Bridge Then and there he SOL
EMMY tried to put the bird on his head
SUCH are few of the blunders in word
- and deed that have been attributed to
the "dear old dean" Must We accept them
all as genuine? Not if we are to believe a
. contributor to NJ. A. p, who informed that
paper that at a recent church congress a
well known delegate said to him, as Mr.
Spooner passed in the procession:
"Have you ever noticed how Spoonerisns
have died out since Canon Liddon is no
.more' | will tell you how it is Liddon and
/ used to 60 out and sit under a tree and
make them up. One of Our best, which is
always attributed to Spooner, is From Ice
lands Greasy Mountains
CPOONERISMS at all events existed be-
- fore Spooner himself was born Some
meritorious ones may be found in Moore's
Diary. There is the story, for example, of
an old actor named Parker who used always
to say the "coisoned pup instead of the
poisoned cup One night, when he spoke
it right, the audience said, mo, no!' and
called for the other reading. Another actor
mentioned in Moore made great hit with
the misquotation: