mondegreen

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word mondegreen. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word mondegreen, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say mondegreen in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word mondegreen you have here. The definition of the word mondegreen will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmondegreen, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

WOTD – 30 June 2006

Etymology

Coined by American journalist and editor Sylvia Wright in 1954 in Harper's Magazine from mishearing a line in the Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl o' Moray: “They have slain the Earl o' Moray, / And laid him on the green”, the second line being misheard as, “And Lady Mondegreen”.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: mŏnd′əgrēn
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɒndəɡɹiːn/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɑndəɡɹiːn/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

Examples (mishearing)
  • “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.”
  • “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

mondegreen (plural mondegreens)

  1. (linguistics) A form of (possibly intentional) error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase, possibly in a different language.
    Synonym: mishearing
    • 2012, Gary Rosen, Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
      The title lyric ["Bei Mir Bistu Shein"], the only part of the original Yiddish preserved by Cahn, was a mondegreen waiting to happen—“My Mere Bits of Shame” and “My Beer, Mr. Shane” were among the earliest recorded mishearings—but the language barrier didn't […]
  2. (rare) A misunderstanding of a written or spoken phrase as a result of multiple definitions.

Coordinate terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ Sylvia Wright (1954 November) “The Death of Lady Mondegreen”, in Harper's Magazine‎, volume 209, number 1254, pages 48–51: “The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.”

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia