"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.
Rap and hip-hop lyrics may be particularly susceptible to being misheard because they are often improvised and frequently lack an official, written version. This issue gained publicity in 2010 over multiple errors claimed in lyrics printed in the Anthology of Rap, printed by Yale University Press.
The phenomenon is not limited to English. For example, Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1875 cited a line from Fyodor Glinka's song "Troika" (1825) колокольчик, дар Валдая (‘the bell, gift of Valday’) claiming that it is usually understood as колокольчик, дарвалдая (‘the bell darvaldaying’ - the onomatopoetic verb for ringing). Ghil'ad Zuckermann cites the Hebrew example mukhrakhím liyót saméakh (‘we must be happy’, with a grammar mistake) instead of (the high-register) úru akhím belév saméakh (‘wake up, brothers, with a happy heart’), from the well-known song Háva Nagíla (Let’s be Happy)." A collection of items submitted by Hindi speakers (and relating mainly to songs in Bollywood movies) is available online.
A closely related category is the soramimi, which are songs that produce different meanings from those originally intended when interpreted in another language.
Other examples Wright suggested are:
:# "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear (from the line in the hymn "Keep Thou My Way" by Fanny Crosby, "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear") Carroll and many others quote it as "Gladly the cross I'd bear". :# There's a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival: "There's a bad moon on the rise") :# 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze", by Jimi Hendrix: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky"). : Both Creedence's John Fogerty and Hendrix eventually acknowledged these mishearings by deliberately singing the "mondegreen" versions of their songs in concert. "Blinded by the Light," a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song by the Manfred Mann's Earth Band (for which they rewrote the lyric in the chorus), contains what has been called "probably the most misheard lyric of all-time": "revved up like a deuce" is frequently misheard as "wrapped up like a douche". The comedy show The Vacant Lot built an entire skit, called "Blinded by the Light", around four friends arguing about the lyrics.
The FBI investigated the song Louie Louie due to claims that its lyrics were obscene. After two years, they were still not able to determine the actual lyrics.
The Bernie Taupin/Elton John song Bennie and the Jets contains the line "She's got electric boots, a mohair suit" which is often misheard as "She's got electric boobs, and mohair shoes". A scene of the movie 27 Dresses reveals that this is but one of many mondegreens that listeners have invented for this song.
A number of misheard lyrics have been recorded, turning a mondegreen into a real title. They include: The song "Sea Lion Woman", recorded in 1939 by Christine and Katherine Shipp, was performed by Nina Simone under the title "See Line Woman" and later by Feist as "Sealion". According to the liner notes from the compilation "A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings," the actual title of this playground song might also be "See [the] Lyin' Woman" or "C-Line Woman." Jack Lawrence's misinterpretation of the French phrase "pauvre Jean" ("poor John") as the identically pronounced "pauvres gens" ("poor people") led to the translation of La goualante du pauvre Jean ("The Ballad of Poor John") as The Poor People of Paris, which in no way hindered it from becoming a major hit in 1956.
A prominent example is Mairzy Doats, a 1943 novelty song by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston. The lyrics are a mondegreen and it's up to the listener to figure out what they mean.
The refrain of the song repeats nonsensical sounding lines: ::Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey ::A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe The clue to the meaning is contained in the bridge: ::If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey, ::Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."
The listener can figure out that the last line of the refrain is "A kid'll eat ivy, too; wouldn't you?", but this line is sung only as a mondegreen.
Other examples include:
Category:Error Category:Auditory perception Category:Humor Category:Phonology Category:Semantics
de:Verhörer ko:몬드그린 is:Misheyrn it:Mondegreen nl:Mondegreen nds-nl:Mondegreen ja:空耳アワー pl:Mondegreen ru:Ослышка fi:Väärin kuullut laulunsanat sv:Mondegreen zh:空耳This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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