mondegreen
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Coined by Sylvia Wright in Harper’s Magazine (The Death of Lady Mondegreen, Nov 1954) from a mishearing of a line in the Scottish ballad The Bonny Earl of Murray: "They hae slay the Earl of Murray, / And laid him on the green" (misheard as “Lady Mondegreen”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
mondegreen (plural mondegreens)
- A form of error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase
- Examples:
- “The ants are my friends, blowin’ in the wind.” (“The answer, my friend, is...”) from Bob Dylan's “Blowin' In the Wind.”
- “There's a bathroom on the right” (“There's a bad moon on the rise”) from Creedence Clearwater Revival's “Bad Moon Rising.”
- “'Scuse me while I kiss this guy” (“'Scuse me while I kiss the sky”) from Jimi Hendrix's “Purple Haze.”
- God’s first name:
- “Andy walks with me…” (“And He walks with me…”) from the hymn “In The Garden”
- “Our Father, Who art in Heaven, Harold be Thy name…” (“…hallowed be thy name…”) from the Lord’s Prayer
- Examples:
- (rare) A misunderstanding of a written or spoken phrase as a result of multiple definitions.
