SPOONERISM

reversal of the initial letters or syllables of two or more words, such as I have a half-warmed fish in my mind (for half-formed wish) and a blushing crow (for a crushing blow). The word was derived from the name of William Archibald Spooner (18441930), a distinguished Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford, a nervous man who committed many spoonerisms. Such transpositions are sometimes made intentionally to produce comic effect.