William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) was an English clergyman and scholar who is best known for his tendency to unintentionally swap the initial sounds or letters of words in a phrase, resulting in what are now commonly referred to as "Spoonerisms."

Spooner was educated at Oxford University, where he later became a lecturer in classics and then an Anglican priest. He was known for his absent-mindedness and eccentricities, including his tendency to mix up his words. His famous Spoonerisms, such as "three cheers for our queer old dean" (instead of "dear old queen"), have been the subject of many jokes and anecdotes over the years.

Despite his reputation for verbal slips, Spooner was respected as a scholar and administrator. He served as the Warden of New College at Oxford from 1903 to 1924, and was known for his efforts to modernize the college and increase its accessibility to students from different backgrounds. Spooner died in 1930, and his legacy lives on in the popularization of his Spoonerisms and the use of his name as a term for this linguistic phenomenon.