A listener was confused when she heard a radio announcer say a man had “Amanda Lynn” in his hands, only to find out that it was “a mandolin.” These funny misheard phrases are called mondegreens, a term coined in Sylvia Wright’s 1954 Harper’s article, “The Death of Lady Mondegreen.” It comes from a mishearing of the song “The Bonny Earl of Moray”: “They have slain the Earl o’ Moray, and laid him on the green.” Another example: “Olive, the other reindeer” for “all of the other reindeer” in the song about Rudolph. Other misheard lyrics. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mondegreens”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Christine from Fitchburg, Wisconsin.
Hi, Christine. Welcome to the program.
Hi.
Thank you very much.
What can we help you with?
I was in my car listening to Garrison Keillor, Prairie Home Companion, and he was introducing his musical guest, and he said he has a mandolin in his hands.
And in my mind’s eye, I pictured someone holding a woman named Amanda Lynn.
And it took me a few seconds to realize that he didn’t say he had a mandolin, the person in his hands, but a mandolin, the instrument in his hands.
And I wondered if there was a word for that phenomenon.
I mean, I heard it correctly.
It kind of made grammatical sense.
So is there a word for something, a mandolin and a mandolin?
Yes, we can definitely help you with that.
It is weird when you get a mental picture from words that sort of run together like that.
I remember not too long ago hearing about a prima donna, and I was thinking, oh, this is somebody before the material girl.
Aretha Franklin, a prima donna.
Exactly. Yes, the word for this is mondegreen. That’s M-O-N-D-E-G-R-E-E-N.
And the etymology of this word is very clear. It was made up by a writer in 1954 who published an article in Harper’s Magazine, I believe it was.
And it was an essay called The Death of Lady Mondegreen.
Now, Lady Mondegreen sounds like a noble woman, right?
Yeah.
But here’s the story.
When Sylvia Wright, the author, was young, she heard an old Scottish ballad about a nobleman named the Earl Amore.
Mm—
And the first stanza is something that she misheard as a child.
It goes, meaning laid him on the grass.
Yeah.
I think we’ve all done that as children.
Yes, exactly.
When we were visiting out west, my sister kept saying we were going to see the big horned sheep, and she thought we said big orange sheep.
She was so disappointed.
They’re not orange.
Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
And there have been countless kids who have misheard the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer song, thinking that there’s another reindeer called Olive.
Olive the other reindeer.
Oh, Olive the other reindeer.
Right, right, right.
So the term for this is mondegreen, and if you want to see a great collection of them, there’s one, I don’t know if you are a Jimi Hendrix fan.
You don’t exactly sound like one.
No, not really.
Okay. Okay. Well, he had this song that had the line in it, excuse me while I kissed the sky, you know, the heavens.
Yeah, I do remember that.
Okay. All right. Well, there’s a book called Excuse Me While I Kissed This Guy.
Oh.
And it’s a collection of mondegreens like that.
Oh, wonderful.
So now you have a word for it, and if you just Google mondegreen, you’ll find lots and lots of examples of it.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Okay.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
You know, another great one, Grant, was done by the, you know that comedy duo in Britain called The Two Ronnies?
Mm—
Love them.
There’s one about this guy comes into a store and he asks for four candles.
And so the guy brings him four candles, but he wanted fork handles, you know, for his forks.
Or maybe it’s the other way around.
I can’t remember.
But I love mondegreens.
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