pigeonbeaks.com

I only just learnt that there is a word which describes the mis-hearing of a phrase, in such a way that it acquires a new meaning. The word is “mondegreen” and it is itself a mondegreen. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined it in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen”, which was published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954.

Click here for the wikipedia article.

And be sure to check out The Archive of Misheard Lyrics whose url comes directly from one of the most famous mondegreens of all time…