Iliff-King phrasebook
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definition
mondegreen noun
A misheard song lyric
Example
Examples of mondegreens:
● scuse me while I kiss this guy [Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix]
● football scummy gnome [Three lions, Baddiel, Skinner & the Lightning Seeds]
● bicycle pump [My simple heart, Three Degrees]
● there’s a bathroom on the right [Bad moon rising, Credence Clearwater Revivial]
● hamber gestannow [Fun fun fun, Beach Boys]
● Wylde Green [Wild thing, Troggs …Wylde Green is a suburbs of Birmingham]
● we built this city on sausage rolls [We built this city, Starship]
● pig’s lip tranny [Little deuce coupe, Beach Boys]
● then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her [I’m a believer, Monkees]
Origin
Verse 1 of the Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl of Moray contains:
They hae slain the Earl of Moray
And laid him on the green.
American author Sylvia Wright heard the 2ⁿᵈ line as “And Lady Mondegreen” in 1954, and it caught on. Or not (see note)
Collector
Joy – 1990s
Joy Healiff (Iliff) – offspring of owners
Notes
Arguably a fairly well known word… except, from the proportion of people who react with a blank stare, maybe not well known at all