A blushing crow
Have you ever got nervous in a Speaking test and got your words a bit mixed up?
It's very common and there's even a name for it!
A "spoonerism" is when you mix up the initial letters of two words e.g
- chewing the doors = doing the chores
- shake a tower = take a shower
- a flock of bats = a block of flats
- know your blows = blow your nose
- a blushing crow = a crushing blow.
a half-warmed fish = a half-formed wish.
a well-oiled bicycle = a well-boiled icicle
The word 'spoonerism' comes from the name of William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), a nervous professor at Oxford University who committed many “spoonerisms.”
The thing I find interesting is that it happens so often with common collocations e.g. "A crushing blow" = "a huge disappointment".
It's as if the collocations are so stuck as a fixed pattern in our heads that they are difficult to separate.
If you spend time working on collocations, you'll increase your vocabulary and your writing and speaking fluency at the same time.
The idea for today's post came from this article about a politician using a spoonerism in Parliament last week.
