The Friday Fillip

I have to be brief this week, because I’m posting this from the LexUM conference in Montreal, while listening with one ear to the translated words of a speaker on the issue of information overload.

I’ve noticed lately that I have trouble hearing the occasional word. I think it must be because the people I hang out with are getting older and so have an increasing tendency to mumble. This can be frustrating, but it can also be fun when I find my brain supplying an amusing word or phrase to replace the blur. The classic instance of this is the case of Lady Mondegreen.

The term “mondegreen” was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Atlantic article. As a child, young Sylvia had listened to a folk song that included the lines “They had slain the Earl of Moray/And Lady Mondegreen.” As is customary with misheard lyrics, she didn’t realize her mistake for years. The song was not about the tragic fate of Lady Mondegreen, but rather, the continuing plight of the good earl: “They had slain the Earl of Moray/And laid him on the green.”

You can go to the Center for the Humane Study of Mondegreens for lots of examples:

We believe that the most frequently submitted Mondegreen is still “Gladly, the cross-eyed bear” (known in the real world as that fine old hymn “Gladly The Cross I’d Bear”). A close second is “There’s a bathroom on the right,” a mishearing of “There’s a bad moon on the rise” from the old Creedence Clearwater song “Bad Moon Rising.”

Third place is still firmly held by “Excuse me while I kiss this guy,” actually “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” from the Jimi Hendrix song “Purple Haze.”

Closely related to mondegreens is a form of mistaking newly named “eggcorns,” which are misspellings of words or phrases, “eggcorns for “acorns” being the iconic case. The Eggcorn Database will give you dozens and dozens of examples, many of which are funny or otherwise interesting. I like “wreckless driver,” “Hobbesian choice” and “nip in the butt,” for example.