Editing Spoonerism (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:William Archibald Spooner Vanity Fair 1898-04-21.jpg|thumb|150px|Spooner as caricatured by Spy ([[Leslie Ward]]) in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|''Vanity Fair'']], April 1898]]
Spoonerisms are named for the Reverend [[William Archibald Spooner]] (1844–1930), Warden from 1903 to 1924 of [[New College, Oxford]], who was allegedly susceptible to this mistake.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine|title=Names make news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928998,00.html?iid=chix-sphere|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114084438/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928998,00.html?iid=chix-sphere|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 January 2009|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=29 October 1928|access-date=20 September 2008}}</ref><ref name="Toledo">{{cite news|date=3 November 1980|title=Spoonerism Message Lost in Translation|work=Toledo Blade|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8_tS2Vw13FcC&dat=19801103&printsec=frontpage&hl=en}}</ref><ref>Compare:{{cite news|orig-date=1 September 1930|title=Obituary: Dr WA Spooner|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/sep/01/archive-obituary-dr-wa-spooner|work=The Manchester Gurdian|publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited|publication-date=1 September 2010|access-date=23 May 2022|via=The Guardian archive|quote=In 1879 it was a favourite Oxford anecdote that Spooner from the pulpit gave out the first line of a well-known hymn as 'Kinkering Kongs their titles take.' [...] The anecdote is well enough authenticated, but according to most people who knew Spooner well that was the only "Spoonerism" he ever made – the essence of a "Spoonerism" being, of course, lack of intent, – though later when, thanks to indefatigable undergraduate and alas! graduates and dignified Fellows of colleges, the legends had become legion, he often used deliberately to 'indulge in metathesis,' to live up to his reputation.}}</ref>
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' records the word ''spoonerism'' as early as 1900.<ref name="oed|spoonerism">{{Cite OED|spoonerism}}</ref>
The term was well-established by 1921. An article in ''[[The Times]]'' from that year reports that:
<blockquote>
The boys of Aldro School, [[Eastbourne]], ... have been set the following task for the holidays: Discover and write down something about: The Old Lady of Threadneedle-street, a Spoonerism, a Busman's Holiday...<ref>"Every Schoolboy Knows", ''The Times'', Dec 8, 1921, pg. 7.</ref>
</blockquote>
An article in the ''Daily Herald'' in 1928 reported spoonerisms to be a "legend". In that piece Robert Seton, once a student of Spooner's, admitted that Spooner:

<blockquote>
...made, to my knowledge, only one "Spoonerism" in his life, in 1879, when he stood in the pulpit and announced the hymn: 'Kinkering Kongs their Titles Take' ["Conquering Kings their Titles Take"]...Later, a friend and myself brought out a book of "spoonerisms".<ref>'"Spoonerisms" a Legend' in ''Daily Herald'' 28/9/1928.</ref>
</blockquote>

In 1937, ''The Times'' quoted a detective describing a man as "a bricklabourer's layer" and used "Police Court Spoonerism" as the headline.<ref>''The Times'', 29 October 1937, pg. 9.</ref>

A spoonerism is also known as a ''marrowsky'' or ''morowski'', purportedly after an 18th-century [[Polish people|Polish]] count who suffered from the same impediment.<ref>Chambers Dictionary 1993 {{ISBN|0-550-10255-8}}</ref><ref name="oed|spoonerism" />