Spoonerisms, Malapropisms and Tom Swifties?

What are these? Sounds pretty made up to me. I came across these while researching double entendres with a friend in history, and I couldn't help but inquire after seeing the word "spoonerism". Basically, these three titles are three of many oddly humorous word-plays in the English language. And I'll explain them to you.

1. Spoonerisms:

Can be either an accidental trip or a deliberate word-play, in which the first morphemes, vowels, or consonants between two phrases are switched. The concept was named after Rev. William Archibald Spooner, who was infamous for committing the mistake. Because this sounds much more confusing than it actually is, here are some examples of spoonerisms that will clarify:

- fighting a liar, lighting a fire

- you hissed my mystery lecture, you missed my history lecture

- cattle ships and bruisers, battle ships and cruisers

- nosey little cook, cosy little nook

- a blushing crow, a crushing blow

- tons of soil, sons of toil

2. Malapropisms:

These can also be commonly known as malaprop or dogberryisms. The term is the concept of using an incorrect homonym in place of the correct word in a phrase. The word malapropisms comes from the character "Mrs. Malaprop" from the 1775 play The Rivals in which the character often made the mistake to a humorous effect. Some more examples!:

- He had to use a fire distinguisher.

- Dad says the monster is just a pigment of my imagination.

- Isn't that an expensive pendulum round that man's neck?

- Good punctuation means not to be late.

- He's a wolf in cheap clothing.

3. Tom Swifties

Tom Swifties have got to be my favourite. The only way to really show what they are is through examples:

- "I need a pencil sharpener," said Tom bluntly.

- "Oops! There goes my hat!" said Tom off the top of his head.

- "I can no longer hear anything," said Tom deftly.

- "I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank.

- "This must be an aerobics class," Tom worked out.

Each of these wordplays are just something I found interesting to look at and read, though maybe not the most grammatically correct (oh well)

That's all for this week! Thanks for reading!

Love, Isabela :)