Kiss this Guy

[beetiger]

Merriam-Webster has once again added words to the dictionary. This is in fact, their job, so no surprise here. New entries include edamame, air quotes, fanboy, pescatarian, racino, and norovirus. But the "new" word (coined in 1954) they are featuring most is "mondegreen", a term for a misheard song lyric. The derivation is a mishearing of a lyric in a Scottish ballad, "laid him on the green", as "Lady Mondegreen".

In any case, the folks at M-W are having a mondegreen contest. I don't think there's a prize or anything, but if you've got a favorite that you want to share, go on over there. I need to ask bard_bloom which piece of the Messiah sounds to him like "and then He soundproofed me" again.

Comments

No no no no no no NO!*

[jorrocks-j.livejournal.com]

It's a Boston Charlie!

You know--

Deck us all with Boston Charlie
Walla Walla Wash., an' Kalmazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley
Swaller dollar caulifower, allie-ga-roo!

Must be 'cause of that metric-avoirdupois...thing...


*O mama mia, mama mia! Mama mia let me go...

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

They also added 'w00t', spelled exactly like that. The computer geeks were ecstatic.

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

1954? Huh. I always thought that the word came from Jon Carroll. Nice to see that getting acknowledged, though.

[pshaw-raven.livejournal.com]

There's a line in "Dark Horse" by George Harrison I always heard as "I'm the school nurse."

[akycha.livejournal.com]

I love mondegreens! Cross-language ones are especially entertaining. I think there's a word for these in Japan, *checks internet* there is! Soramimi. I think it is used for both cross-language and same-language.

Wikipedia lists one that always cracks me up. The Beatles' "I want to hold your hand" apparently sounds like "idiotic public urination" in Japanese.

[tn-grrl.livejournal.com]

my favorite mondegreen is from a personal experience. when my youngest sister was about 5 or so, i found her in the living room singing "Band on the rug... Band on the Rug" (apologies to Wings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4HSBAQ9ZY).

Love, love, love the incense tins, btw, and how did you know i have a bowl fetish anyway? ;)

[paka.livejournal.com]

My worst ones were misinterpreting the Ramones, but that isn't exactly hard to do. (I interpreted a line about wanting LSD as wanting MSG, and a line about being "a Green Beret in Vietnam" as being "a Green Beret, a CPA.")

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Actually, Jon Carroll credits the original in the first column in his series.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like the incense tins. Sorry they took so ridiculously long to get to you!