Poor William Archibald Spooner! That British clergyman and educator, who lived from 1844 to 1930, often had to speak in public, but he was a nervous man and his tongue frequently got tangled up. He ...

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word spoonerism began appearing in the colloquial as early as 1885 when Spooner was 41. During World War II, he reassured his students, “When our boys come home ...

Pity the scholar, opening a lecture on Tacitus or William of Wykeham and looking out on a gaggle of leering undergraduates hoping he will twist a phrase or two to rude or amusing effect. Dr William ...