Chrysti The Wordsmith: Mondegreen - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. In early July of 2000 an aide to the editors at Merriam-Webster announced that the word mondegreen M O N D E G R E N will appear as one of over 100 new entries in its forthcoming Eleventh Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary though new to the pages of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary the word mondegreen is not of recent vintage. It was first cited in a 1954 edition of Harper's Magazine where it was explained that a mondegreen is a word or phrase that results from the misinterpretation of a song lyric. There are two classic examples of the mondegreen phenomenon in rock music. One Creedence Clearwater Revival sang. There's a bad moon on the rise. Thousands of fans heard there's a bathroom on the right. Many listeners refashioned Jimi Hendrix musical line. Scuse me while I kiss the sky too. Scuse me while I kiss this guy. These are mondegreens and though you may never have heard the word you're likely familiar with the

notion it represents almost everyone can come up with a favorite mondegreens lyric. Mine is from my sister who when belting out God Bless America as a child she sang earnestly stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from a bulb. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman next time on this series the origin of the word mondegreen emmel and D E R E N. Christi the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.