A mondegreen comes from misunderstood phrases or lyrics.
According to the AP report, an old Scottish ballad included a lyric “laid him on the green” but was confused over time and thought to be “Lady Mondegreen.”
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I think lots of us have experienced mondegreens. I never knew there was a word for this until reading this Associated Press report.
Another famous mondegreen is “Scuse me, while I kiss this guy” associated with a Jimi Hendrix song that actually says “kiss the sky.”
I always thought the Bee Gees song about “more than a woman” sounded a bit like they were singing about “bald-headed woman” though am not sure if anyone else heard it that way.
Mondegreen was reportedly first spotted in print in 1954 and has been watched since then, but just now is thought appropriate to be added to the dictionary.
Some other words added to the dictionary include:
• Prosecco — a sparkling Italian wine.
• Soju — a Korean vodka distilled from rice.
• Infinity pool — an outdoor pool with an edge designed to make the water appear to flow into the horizon.
• Dirty bomb — a conventional bomb that releases a radioactive material.
• Norovirus — small, round, single-strand RNA viruses, such as the Norwalk Virus.
• Edamame — immature green soybeans.
• Pescatarian — a vegetarian who eats fish.
Maybe it’s time to check and see just how old is the dictionary at your home or office and consider how many words it may be missing.
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Wife Gladys and I were in Destin, Fla., last week. I had a business meeting and then stayed an extra couple of days to enjoy the area for the Independence Day holiday.
As you’d expect with a long holiday weekend, there were plenty of tourists at the beach, around the pools, in the stores and restaurants in the area.
It looked a bit like Louisiana-east as I spotted a huge number of people sporting LSU logos and colors, and a decent number of ULL logos as well.
While there we saw several locals who were there enjoying the sun and fun as well.
And the drive back saw plenty of vehicles with Louisiana tags, a ton of which had those carriers or bags strapped on top to allow you to transport extra gear.
Louisiana’s got a great coastline but we need to figure out how to get some of those nice sand beaches.
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“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free,” — P.J. O’Rourke.
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“No man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session,” — Mark Twain.
WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.


Comments
Master Sparks wrote on Jul 9, 2008 7:42 AM: