World Enough and Time

In conversation with maaseru I discovered yesterday that I couldn't remember exactly what was a spoonerism and what was a malapropism. This called for research. I was embarrassed. I remembered the origins of the words - Spooner was a clergyman at Oxford University, Mrs. Malaprop was a character in "The Rivals" by Sheridan. That was easy, but which wordplay was which?

We looked it up. A spoonerism is a transposition of sounds in two words in a sentence or phrase -

Some of the more famous quotations attributed to Spooner include "The Lord is a shoving leopard," "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," and "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?).

A malapropism is a way of saying the wrong word in a way that sounds almost right, like

"I resemble that remark!" (i.e. resent) - Stooge Curly Howard, after being insulted by fellow Stooge Moe.

Huh. I've always enjoyed quoting that, but I thought that was Groucho Marx. I'm just confused all over the place these days.

I am amused to see that wikipedia quotes Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing for the use of malapropisms, and quite rightly, too.