Sylvia Wright, an American author, coined it after a phrase she recalled mishearing as a young girl.
So, why do we call these misinterpretations mondegreens? The term is itself a mondegreen. A common eggcorn is “old wise tale” for the more canonical “old wives’ tale.” Where did the word mondegreen come from? Nor should mondegreens be confused with eggcorns, “a word or phrase that is a seemingly logical alteration of another word or phrase that sounds similar and has been misheard or misinterpreted.” Where malapropisms tend to be obviously ridiculous, an eggcorn can be a plausible variant of the original phrase, often working in the same context. Mondegreens are not to be confused with malapropisms, “the act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.” One ready example is to “dance the flamingo” instead of “dance the flamenco.” Mondegreens aren’t confined to songs and poetry they can also refer to other types of speech, like mistaking the sarcastic saying “Thank you, Captain Obvious” with “Thank you, Katherine Obvious.” What are malapropisms and eggcorns? A mondegreen typically sounds like the original phrase, (i.e., they’re homophonous) but the meaning is often entirely changed-with presumably amusing results. Have you ever heard someone sing the wrong lyrics to a song? Maybe a child gave the nursery rhyme “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” a new meaning by replacing the line “life is but a dream” with “life’s a butter dream.” Or maybe you’ve unironically belted out “Excuse me while I kiss this guy,” instead of Jimi Hendrix’s intended lyrics, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”Ī word or a phrase resulting from mishearing another word or phrase (especially in a song or poem) is a common phenomenon known as a mondegreen.
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