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Slip and pipers

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Today’s Bizarro offer some transposition (spooneristic) word play, involving the exchange of the initial syllables of the two accented words in the clichéd expression pipe and slippers — giving the eminently depictable slip and pipers:


(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 9 in this strip — see this Page.)

From my 12/6/13 posting “Classical Spoonerism”:

Victor Steinbok noted that “genuine Spoonerisms” are rare, meaning that inadvertent word-part transpositions are rare (though he cited an example from his own experience …). Intentional — playful — word-part transpositions [as above] are extremely common, and so are inadvertent whole-word transpositions, reported on here fairly often

Finally, the clichéd expression pipe and slippers, as in fetch me my pipe and slippers — meaning, roughly, ‘bring me stereotypical male domestic comforts (esp. of older age)’. The expression pipe and slippers on its own evokes those comforts (and, often, aging as well).


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