You searched for: “mondegreens
mondegreen (s) (noun), mondegreens (pl)
A series of words that result from the mishearing or misinterpretation of a statement or song lyric: "I led the pigeons to the flag" for "I pledge allegiance to the flag."

The term mondegreen; is a series of words resulting from the mishearing of a statement or a song lyric and it is generally attributed to Sylvia Wright, who is credited with coining the neologism in a 1954 Harper magazine column.

Ms. Wright was unhappy to discover that for many years she had misunderstood the last line of the first stanza in the Scottish folk ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray", which is written as:

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And they laid him on the Green.

Ms. Wright misheard this stanza as:

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

From the disappearance of Sylvia Wright's tragic heroine, Lady Mondegreen, came the term for describing many unconventional interpretations or understandings of oral repetition, usually in the form of song lyrics.

Mondegreens are considered to be the opposite of malapropisms because they result from something being misheard rather than being misspoken

Here are a few misheard phrases and song lyrics:

  • Misheard: "Excuse me while I kiss this guy."
    Spoken: "Excuse me while I kiss the sky."
    Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
  • Misheard: "There's a bathroom on the right."
    Spoken: "There's a bad moon on the rise."
    Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater
  • Misheard: "The girl with colitis goes by."
    Spoken: "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes."
    Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, The Beatles
  • Misheard: "Crimean River."
    Spoken: "Cry Me a River."
    Cry Me a River, Julie London
  • Misheard: "Bring me an iron lung."
    Spoken: "Bring me a higher love."
    Higher Love, Steve Winwood
  • Misheard: "Mama don't take my clothes 'n' throw 'em away."
    Spoken: "Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."
    Kodachrome, Paul Simon
  • Misheard: "You make the best homemade stew around."
    Spoken: "You make the best of what's still around."
    When The World Is Running Down, The Police
This entry is located in the following unit: Mondegreens and Oronyms (page 1)
(a collection of misheard words and sentences)