Those who enjoy puns and word games / will also have fun with "spoonerisms."

A spoonerism is / the mixing of sounds in a phrase / that makes the phrase itself sound funny, / either intentionally or by mistake.

Some spoonerisms involve / the confusion of consonant sounds, / as in saying "fight a liar" / rather than "light a fire."

Others occur / when the vowel sounds are mixed up, / like when "feel like a fool" becomes "fool like a feel."

Spoonerisms often result in nonsense, / but the funniest are those / that change the meaning altogether, / such as saying "I'm a damp stealer" / instead of "I'm a stamp dealer."

Spoonerisms are named after Rev. William A. Spooner, / warden of New College in Oxford / around the turn of the 20th century.

Popular, kind, and intelligent, / Spooner was famous / for these peculiar slips of the tongue.

Hilariously, / he was seldom aware / that he was making such mistakes.

It is thought / that Spooner's classic mistakes included / "you've tasted two worms" / instead of "you've wasted two terms," / "a blushing crow" / for "a crushing blow," / and "hiss my mystery lectures" / when he meant "miss my history lectures."

Although some doubted the authenticity / of these quotes, / the Spooner legend grew bigger and bigger.

The term "spoonerism" was officially incorporated / into the English language / while he was still in his fifties, / marking his amusing place in history forever.