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In Polish, there is a relatively established literary pastime of finding two pairs of words having forms a1a2 b1b2 and b1a2 a1b2, where both pairs are realistic phrases (i.e., they have a sensible meaning and are not unrelated), and the second pair has a dirty meaning.

They are usually adjective noun or noun verb.

Does this wordplay have a name in English?

KillingTime
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Turin
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  • Here's a similar one not mentioned in the dup: "I like a well-boiled icicle". – Weather Vane Oct 03 '23 at 16:20
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    Swapping one consonant (or cluster) for another is called Metonymy. Saying "ax" instead of "ask" is contact metonymy (/k/ and /s/ remain in contact), whereas "boiled soy" instead of "soiled boy" is distance metonymy (they're not in contact). It doesn't matter what kind of words or part of speech it is -- it's all sound, no grammar. There are specific types of metonymy like Spoonerisms, too. – John Lawler Oct 03 '23 at 16:34
  • Metonymy is swapping one consonant for another? I thought it meant a figure of speech where one term is substituted for another closely associated to it. Like Hollywood for the American movie industry. – Lambie Oct 03 '23 at 17:17
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    I don’t think this question duplicates the earlier one. Here OP is not asking about errors but (intentional) wordplay. I suspect @Turin has in mind things more like, “I’d rather have a bottle in front o’ me than a frontal lobotomy.” There’s also a class of riddles/jokes for which it is assumed that the listener will know to perform just this type of phoneme-swapping to create or complete the punch line (I apologize but the only example coming to mind is obscene, so I don’t include it here.) – PaulTanenbaum Oct 03 '23 at 17:19
  • @PaulTanenbaum One that's fit for punchlines without being obscene is making sure to check the (nooks, crannies) ↔ (crooks, nannies). – tchrist Oct 04 '23 at 12:34
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    And one that’s not too off color would be, “Q. What’s the difference between boulangers and a happy newlywed couple? A. The boulangers bake the bread, while the newlyweds…” – PaulTanenbaum Oct 04 '23 at 12:44
  • @tchrist - also a movie written by Evan Hunter (Ed McBain) – Jim Mack Oct 04 '23 at 20:25

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