Word of the Day: Mondegreen

[Capt Lightning]

Mondegreen : A misheard statement or lyric in a song.. eg. In the Police's song "So Lonely". they appear to sing "Sue Lawley" - the name of a well known TV presenter.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Well now... I just so happen to be the queen of misheard and sung lyrics!

What a mondegreen queen I am!

 

[Sliverfox]

We were traveling with best friends,, when hubby started to sing,,,"Bringing in the sheep"
It was supposed to be, " Bringing in the sheaves."
That was a great mondegreen!

 

[StarSong]

"There's a bathroom on the right" instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise" was a very common mondegreen.

To be fair, it's often difficult to decipher some of John Fogerty's lyrics because he sings with a weird southern-style accent, even though he was born, raised and (apparently) always lived in California.

 

[debodun]

My personal mondegreen experience is a TV ad by a local furniture store. I though they said "We're having a huge urine sale." Actually it was "We're having a huge year end sale."

 

[Ruthanne]

I have used many a mondegreen while singing to myself but for the life of me can't recall a single one at the moment

 

[AnnieA]

A friend's mondegreen until his 30s was "laughing stalk" instead of "laughing stock." He wasn't much into history and said he always wondered why people found a plant part humiliating.

 

[AnnieA]

"There's a bathroom on the right" instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise" was a very common mondegreen.

To be fair, it's often difficult to decipher some of John Fogerty's lyrics because he sings with a weird southern-style accent, even though he was born, raised and (apparently) always lived in California.

It's very Delta Blues based with some Memphis rockabilly thrown in. I don't have a bit of trouble understanding him!

 

[Oris Borloff]

Yet another example of a mondegreen is from the Hollies, "She was a law school woman in a bad dress".

 

[Pappy]

In the song My Sharona, I thought for a long time that they were saying rice aroma.

 

[debodun]

The traditional game of "Telephone", "Chinese Whispers" or "Gossip", involves mishearing a whispered sentence to produce successive mondegreens that gradually distort the original sentence as it is repeated by successive listeners.

 

[Kaila]

If one person whispers, Is the sky blue?
And the listener, replies,
What'd ya'say? Are my eyes blue???

Then is that still a mondegreen?

Or is it a mondeblew?

 

[Lavinia]

Example of a mondegreen.....an army officer sent a message, 'Send reinforcements, we're going to advance', which became, 'Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance'.

 

[hollydolly]

I've never heard the word Mondegreen... but I do know of the misinterpretation of a phrase which gives it new meaning..

I've just learned today this... The term comes from the Scottish author Sylvia Write, who wrote a 1954 article in Harper’s Magazine in which she mentioned misinterpreting a Scottish ballad. The original line, “They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray and laid him on the green,” she misheard as, “They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray and Lady Mondegreen.”