Is the bean dizzy?

Today’s discovery while exploring Oxford: in the chapel of New College, there is a burial plaque for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, (1844-1930), Warden of New College.  Reverend Spooner was notorious for getting his words mixed up.  So much so, that this tendency is named after him.  A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched.   Spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle (or intentionally playing with words).

Few, if any, of the Reverend’s spoonerisms were deliberate, and many of those attributed to him are apocryphal. Here are some of the best:

  "The Lord is a shoving leopard" (Loving shepherd)

  "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" (...customary to kiss the bride)

  "Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?" (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?)

  "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain" (You have missed all my history lectures, and were caught lighting a fire in the quad. Having wasted two terms, you will leave by the next down train)

  He supposedly remarked to one lady, during a college reception, "You'll soon be had as a matter of course" (You'll soon be mad as a Hatter of course)

  "Let us glaze our rasses to the queer old Dean" (...raise our glasses to the dear old queen.

  "We'll have the hags flung out" (...flags hung out)

  "a half-warmed fish" (A half-formed wish)

  "Is the bean dizzy?" (Is the Dean busy?)

  "Go and shake a tower" (Go and take a shower)

  "a well-boiled icicle" (A well-oiled bicycle)

  "I've lost my signifying glass". (Later): "Oh, well, it doesn't magnify."

  "This vast display of cattleships and bruisers". (This vast display of battleships and cruisers)

  "Such Bulgarians should be vanished...". (Such vulgarians should be banished)

  "He was killed by a blushing crow". (He was killed by a crushing blow)

I’ll never be well known, nor memorialized in a lovely chapel on Oxford.  But, like Spooner, I do muddle my words sometimes.  It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

New College Chapel where there is a memorial plaque
to the Reverend William Archibald Spooner

Painting of Spooner in a lecture hall at New College