"A mondegreen is a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that shares homophony (sounds like) another word or phrase that has been heard."
Mondegreens crop up a fair amount in lyrics to songs - my favourite was always Billy Ocean's "When the going gets tough", which needs very little imagination to mis-hear as "Go and get stuffed". There's also the hymn - "Gladly the cross-eyed bear" (Gladly the Cross I'd bear).. if you want to see more of this stuff then click here
I was able to put my new word to immediate use when I was singing Audrey a rendition of "Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea" (one of my favourite nursery rhymes) as she went to sleep, and being the fairy/princess/mermaid influenced girl she is was convinced my rendition was actually "Barbie Shaftoe" which put a whole new spin on the song!
No comments:
Post a Comment