Mondegreens
One common and somewhat strange writing mistake that people make is called a “mondegreen.” A mondegreen occurs when someone mishears or misinterprets a word or phrase in a song lyric, poem, or spoken sentence, often leading to a humorous or completely different meaning
What are Mondegreens?
When proofreading, we don’t only deal with common errors. We often deal with quite strange ones, especially when checking transcribed work, where mondegreens can be aplenty.
The term “mondegreen” was coined by American writer Sylvia Wright in a 1954 essay titled “The Death of Lady Mondegreen,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine. In the essay, Wright described a misinterpretation from her own childhood when she misheard a line from a Scottish ballad her mother used to read to her. The original line was:
“They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray,
And laid him on the green.”
But young Sylvia heard it as:
“They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.”
The term “mondegreen” itself is derived from her misinterpretation of “laid him on the green” as “Lady Mondegreen,” and it has since become widely used to describe the phenomenon of mishearing or misinterpreting words or phrases in songs, poems, and spoken language. Here’s another example of a mondegreen.
Original Lyric: “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”
Mondegreen: “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.”
In this case, the misinterpretation of the Jimi Hendrix lyric changes the meaning entirely, making it seem like he’s talking about kissing a guy instead of kissing the sky.
Mondegreens often result from the way our brains try to make sense of ambiguous or unfamiliar sounds, and they can lead to amusing or even embarrassing misunderstandings in written and spoken language. And as funny as they can be, they remain an error, and other readers might not be in on the joke – that’s where our quality assured proofreading service can help.