Crossword clues for mondegreen
Wiktionary
n. 1 A form of error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase 2 (context rare English) A misunderstanding of a written or spoken phrase as a result of multiple definitions.
Wikipedia
A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near- homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar, and make some kind of sense. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing about how as a girl she had misheard the lyric "...and laid him on the green" in a Scottish ballad as "...and Lady Mondegreen".
"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008. The phenomenon is not limited to English, with examples cited by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in the Hebrew song " Háva Nagíla" ("Let's Be Happy"), and in Bollywood movies.
A closely related category is a Hobson-Jobson, where a word from a foreign language is homophonically translated into one's own language, e.g. cockroach from Spanish cucaracha. For misheard lyrics this phenomenon is called soramimi. An unintentionally incorrect use of similar-sounding words or phrases in speaking is a malapropism. If there is a connection in meaning, it can be called an eggcorn. If a person stubbornly sticks to a mispronunciation after being corrected, that person has committed a mumpsimus.
Usage examples of "mondegreen".
Baron Morray was explaining to Baron Mondegreen, over their own late breakfast, about how three ill-mannered freebooters had interfered with his sleep.
Garnett sending the Morrays and Mondegreens to try to break through to the closest villages made sense.
Mondegreen with the lady, and to help escort Baron Mondegreen back for the Baronial Council, perhaps?
But she and her two maids were due in Mondegreen, to minister to the ailing baron and accompany him back to LaMut for the Baronial Council - or, at least, she was due to stay out of noble beds in LaMut for the time being - and Baron Morray had insisted that the patrol might as well swing north to guard her on her way home.
Lady Mondegreen to LaMut, for the same baronial council that Baron Verheyen is going to attend.
His most recent attempt to think things out seemed to have gone well - it had distracted the baronial troops, after all, and perhaps it had even given Lady Mondegreen the arguments she had apparently needed to get Verheyen and Morray to come to terms with each other.
Mondegreen had long been too frail for frequent trips into LaMut during the war, which is why Morray had been appointed by the Earl's father, and confirmed by Earl Vandros, as the Military Bursar, and from what Pirojil could see, that had meant, in practice, that he was also holding down Mondegreen's more general bursarial duties on behalf of the earldom, as well.
With the patrol sitting motionless in the middle of the road, it occurred to Kethol that he would have objected to Lady Mondegreen accompanying them, if he'd thought anybody would have listened to him.
There was no way to be sure of anything, but he liked Pirojil's theory that Lady Mondegreen had carefully been picking her paramours for the dark hair and grey eyes of the husband who couldn't get her with child - which helped to explain her affairs with Morray and Argent, and if she had been willing to lower herself to commoners, added more additional local candidates than Durine could count.
There was no way to be sure of anything, but he liked Pirojil’s theory that Lady Mondegreen had carefully been picking her paramours for the dark hair and grey eyes of the husband who couldn’t get her with child - which helped to explain her affairs with Morray and Argent, and if she had been willing to lower herself to commoners, added more additional local candidates than Durine could count.
Morray and Lady Mondegreen were going away to become a country baron and lady and do their best never to set foot in LaMut again, for fear that Verheyen might think they were gathering support against him, no matter what Morray had sworn.
I don't have the vaguest idea as to why he might want to murder the Baron and Lady Mondegreen, but I can swear that falling asleep on guard isn't his custom.