[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Spoonerism"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fantastic citation for "spoonerism" on May 25, 1891, Fred!
The QI article containing an early example of a spoonerism from April
9, 1887 has now been updated, and you are acknowledged:

Quote Origin: You Are Occupewing My Pie
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/05/10/pie/

Based on current evidence, the linguistic notion of a "spoonerism" was
discussed before the eponym was published.

Stephen Goranson previously located the second earliest citation for
"spoonerism" dated April 27, 1892 in "The Oxford Magazine", and posted
it to the mailing list back in 2013.
https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2013-December/130004.html

Garson

On Tue, Sep 10, 2024 at 10:18 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Spoonerism (OED 1900)
>
> 1891 Western Morning News 25 May 5/5 (Newspapers.com)  University Letters. ... Oxford ... The "New Rattler" was even duller than the weather. Its jests were one and all built on the time-honoured model that men call the Spoonerism, and they were not even ingeniously built.
>
> 1892 Oxford Magazine 27 Apr. 303/2 (Google Books)  There is that fascinating form of fooling which consists in inverting the terminations or beginnings of words. ... life is hard enough without "Spoonerisms."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org