Pity the scholar, opening a lecture on Tacitus or William of Wykeham and looking out on a gaggle of leering undergraduates hoping he will twist a phrase or two to rude or amusing effect. Dr William ...

You may all be forgiven for missing this momentous occasion, since I nearly did too, but yesterday, the 22nd of July, was the 177th birth anniversary of the Oxford don and ordained minister Rev.

Regular readers and long-time friends would recognize that I’m a lover of words. Their arrangement and usage fascinate me. Thus, it should come as no surprise that “Trivially Speaking” wocuses on ...

Dear Richard Lederer: Have you ever done a column on spoonerisms? My husband and I find them amusing and entertaining, yet we are a little amazed that so many of our friends haven’t heard of Rev.

You know how sometimes when you're talking, your mouth is moving faster than your brain and you inevitably transpose the beginning parts of a couple of words? You might be trying to say, "You have a ...

A spoonerism is the accidental transposition of the initial sounds of two or more words, according to the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary. The late Shel Silverstein decided to get rid of the ...