An albino with a pinkish face and an appearance described as "rabbit-like," Reverend Dr. William Archibald Spooner was an Oxford don and priest of the Church of England. For decades he was a respected member of the faculty at Oxford, lecturing on Christianity, philosophy, and ancient history, but he is mostly remembered for unintentionally transposing letters or syllables as he spoke (e.g., "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" or "You have hissed all my mystery lectures"). Almost 165 years after his birth (on 22 July 1844), the details of his life are no longer common knowledge, but the nature of his mis-spoken words is remembered. A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched. Such wordplay, intentional or otherwise, has a history beyond the good Reverend Doctor, but he is alone in his fame. Having trouble creating bitty wanter of your own? Fablebish to the rescue.
posted by filthy light thief on Jul 21, 2009 - 39 comments

Y peqgwtmeyv od y peqgwtmeyguop ptfafieav of luopu owd yawute lokk dlowpu y dqvntk of y dweofm tx lteid xte yf yfyktmtad dqvntk, yfi qta vadw lter taw owd teomofyk dyqofm. Uodwteopykkq, Dgyewyf vokowyeq ptvvafopywotfd ioi kyq metafilter, te yw vofovav ypw yd yf ofowoyk dutlofm tx peqgwtmeyvd, yfi gtkowopyk yggkopywotfd nq Etvyfd ioi xtkktl. Ftl, y peqgwtmeyv od, xte vyfq, y gtgakye utnnq. Yf yggetypu wt y dtkawotf pyf waef taw nydop, dapu yd kttrofm xte dutew lteid, te ioxxopakw--peqgwyfykqdod, adofm cayfwowq tx ofiojoiayk dqvntkd te iomeygud. Getmeyvd pyf ykdt yddodw, ox y peqgwtmeyv weakq ptfxtafid qta. Y ltei tx lyefofm, wutamu--peqgwtmeyvd pyf eaf ag ymyofdw domfoxopyfw ptvgkopywotfd ox netamuw ag ymyofdw y kogtmeyv, luopu od y xtev tx lteigkyq of luopu y gyewopakye dqvntk od ktdw xetv y gyeymeygu tx leowofm. Te, ox y gyeymeygu od wtt voki, y nttr tx xoxwq wutadyfi lteid. (Y jykoyfw iodgkyq tx vydtpuodv.) Y dyvgkofm tx geote yew.
posted by Upton O'Good on Mar 27, 2008 - 39 comments

Roz Chast, noted New Yorker cartoonist with a penchant for sly wordplay, interviewed [embedded video] by Steve Martin. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Dec 18, 2006 - 15 comments

Verbotomy - wordplay: create daily neologisms based on a given definition and illustration. (via Bifurcated Rivets)
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 13, 2006 - 18 comments

"BATMAN - We've got to stop the joker! Those boner crimes are making us look bad! And I'm worried about the boner he's readying for YOU!" (slightly related) (Via Radosh.net)
posted by soyjoy on Mar 17, 2005 - 27 comments

Word Oddities - did you know Honorificabilitudinitatibus, 27 letters long, is the longest English word consisting strictly of alternating consonants and vowels? You do now. Click the link for more fun facts about words.
posted by Orange Goblin on Nov 25, 2003 - 17 comments

"Comrades! As we clip our belts and prepare to cleave our forces for the difficult anabasis ahead, never forget the dike that is our ultimate goal. Remain here, unbending, until morning. But when the call goes out, be fast! Consult not your copemates, for such oversight shall screen our transparent objectives. And finally, never forget we have aught to lose!" --General Antonin Contronym [More Inside]
posted by rusty on Sep 18, 2003 - 18 comments

Tom Swifties! "I'm wearing my wedding ring," said Tom with abandon. Oh, the pun-ishment.
posted by kcmoryan on Aug 6, 2003 - 281 comments

Puzzle that makes you weep softly and twitch. Cryptic crosswords are mostly unappreciated on US shores, but those who have learned to seek them out have struck upon perhaps the best wordplay puzzles ever. Instead of rewarding a solver's grasp of trivia, cryptics are truly a battle of wits in which each clue is a riddle that plays by a few simple rules. Part of the riddle is a straight definition of the final word; the rest is subtly disguised wordplay. It's hard to know just why these haven't caught on — it may be that the most readily available ones, such as those in Harper's or The Atlantic, are extra-tricky affairs that cater toward expert solvers. But online, there are plenty of puzzles suitable for those interested in giving cryptics a whirl, including this gem, written for a 12-year-old audience.
posted by blueshammer on Jan 27, 2003 - 37 comments

What did John F. Kennedy, Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Confucius all have in common? They were masters of chiasmus. If you've ever been amused by the simple but elegant word play in sentences like "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy, or "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men", then you appreciate a good chiasmus when you hear one. via the always interesting bragadocchio
posted by iconomy on Jan 21, 2003 - 48 comments

extremely cool site if you like things like this... palindromes, anagrams, spoonerisms, pangrams, oxymora, mnemonics, etymology,
posted by sadie01221975 on Jan 1, 2002 - 18 comments

Stop what you're doing and go here now! It's an online anagram maker, put in your whole name, and set the word length as high as you can. At 3 letters per word the letters 'MatthewHaughey' spell out hundreds of phrases, the best shown below (punctuation by me):

Why hate? hug mate!
Heat may wet Hugh?
Eat Wham, they hug.
They wag meat, huh?
posted by mathowie on Sep 16, 1999 - 0 comments