Are you getting these wrong too? | EGGCORNS

[@Outliver]

Reminds me of a similar, actually quite popular phenomenon we have in Germany. It's when we hear German words, names or even full sentences in English song lyrics. We call those songs "Agathe Bauer" songs. The term originates from a woman calling a radio station, wishing for a song she thought was called "Agathe Bauer". What she meant was "I got the power" by "Snap!". This quickly became a trend and different radio stations have now collected hundreds of those songs. Might be worth an episode, I don't know.

[@chantellelandon85]

Omg Ellie that's so funny lol 😂 I'm currently learning German myself, so that's good to know haha 🤣😆

[@carolinejames7257]

Something similar happened in my hometown. Late one night someone called the radio station to request a song, but they were drunk and their speech was slurred. (The requests were by telephone back in the day, and were broadcast.) He kept asking for what sounded like The Cedar Tree song, and the presenter kept asking questions, trying to get a song title or artist. Eventually he asked the person calling in if he could sing a bit of the song, which he did. It sounded something like: "See da tree how big iss grown, But den it hasn been too long...". The song is Honey, by Tammy Wynette among others.

[@chantellelandon85]

EllieDYorks lol yup true

[@Murcielago1999J]

That happens a lot in Spanish as well. It is kind of a meme, singing "Agua en tu refri" (water in your fridge) in I want to break free by Queen. The most famous one is "esas son Reebok o son Nike?" (Are those Reebok or Nike?) for the song This is the Rhythm of the Night. Even the band Twisted Sister sang "Huevos con Aceite" (Eggs with oil) during their song We're Not Gonna Take It when they toured in Mexico

[@WordsUnravelled]

I had Agathe Bauer in my notes but forgot to mention it(/"her"). Next time... Rob

[@bikerjock2654]

An elderly gentleman once told me that his granddaughter had asked him to sing the “pie weighing song”. “The pie weighing song?”, he asked her, “I don’t think I know that one.” “Yes you do grandpa.” she insisted, “Some where over the rainbow, weigh a pie.”

[@Subfightr]

Wow. Lol

[@katietoole8345]

😂

[@loisdungey3528]

❤. 😂

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

Classic and very common.

[@redessa01]

Lol. The Lion King song Hakuna Matata, where it says, "it's our problem free philosophy" my oldest child thought it was "it's our problem free, a lots of peas."

[@glenprideaux]

My young foster children used to refer to me, an older carer, as their fossil father. I embraced the term.

[@patrickbenthamradley]

LOL great one ! ( From another old fossil ! )

[@loisdungey3528]

Can I laugh? As a not-quite fossil! I think this is super cool. When someone gives you a special name that MEANS something.

[@efretheim]

I shall regard myself as a fossil father from now on. I have kids in the 20s and 30s.

[@fretfulporpentine]

When I was 7 years old, I became ill with what was originally thought to be rheumatic fever. My classmates at school sent me hand-made “get well soon” cards, wishing me a quick recovery from my romantic fever.

[@lakrids-pibe]

[@WordsUnravelled]

The affliction of every lady character from classic lit who died of Sad.

[@melodycuthbert4840]

Reminds me of The Glass Menagerie; the main character had Pleurosis, which is also called Pleurisy. Her romantic interest heard it as Blue Roses.

[@R08Tam]

My favourite malapropism was my Mum's. If I changed the subject, mid conversation, she would say "oh you're going off on a tandem again".

[@Pippis78]

Ooh! I like that! Going on a tandem isn't going completely off rails but on a parallel track along the main thing your talking about!

[@jonrolfson1686]

Going on a tandem is nice. It’s better when you’re not going alone.

[@Pippis78]

@@jonrolfson1686 Going on a tangent together with someone! That could be it too!

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

You were epicycling around the point!

[@mysapphirestar]

Not strictly a Mondegreen but there is a line from La Donna e Mobile in Rigoletto that sounds just like “elephant’s ears”. We actually have an app now for producing Malapropisms. It’s called Autocorrect and for that I am internally grapefruit.

[@loisdungey3528]

😂

[@OlliWilkman]

Way back 20 years ago Rathergood had a flash animation on this; if you look up "elephants yeah" on youtube, you'll see it.

[@allendracabal0819]

You should see a doctor about that.

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

A classic classic.

[@DanielMasmanian]

Ooh very good

[@eloisesmith6467]

Oooh! I remember a mondegreen! John Fogerty (Credence Clearwater Revival) had a song that was misinterpreted by many as "There's a bathroom on the right." The actual lyric was "There's a bad moon on the rise." Fogerty got such a bang out of it that in one live performance he sang the bathroom version. 😄

[@Eric1AL]

That's a good one. Classic.

[@ChadN-xh9sz]

My twin brother and I said that one. We knew it probably wasn't right but it cracked us up

[@kennethflorek8532]

Proud Mary was such a huge hit that another star had a hit of it later. (Tina Turner) In an interview, Fogerty straightened out a line that I never could make out in the original but in the remake it was (wrongly), "punched a lota pain down in New Orleans," which I believed. He said it was, "pumped a lota 'tane down in New Orleans." 'tane = octane = gas? Kinda too bad.

[@anjadrolshagen6388]

It reminds me of Elvis singing "Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair" in oder version of are you lonesome tonight.

[@SrRatSandwich]

My favorite mondegreen is when Freddie Mercury says “I am adopted!” in Another One Bites the Dust (real lyric is “bite the dust, hey” but “I am adopted” is better)

[@justcarcrazy]

I just love that French song about the pink aeroplane, "L'avion Rose".

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Way too easy to pun in French since the spoken form only has 14 words.

[@stevenmyers6291]

I teach driver's ed and I've seen student write "right away" when they mean "right of way", which is similar, but definitely not the same thing!

[@lcmgen]

I have a nice mondegreen, being a native dutch speaker. For the last 40 years or so I heard, in the Pink Floyd song One of the Few, "What do you do to make ants meat?" instead of "What do you do to make ends meet?"

[@kevinmyles6436]

"Doggie-dog world" is so wonderful.

[@allendracabal0819]

Snoop agrees.

[@zak-a-roo264]

Dog walker here, have to agree!!

[@michaelstamper5604]

All I can say to that is "woof"

[@elmoteroloco]

My mother, now a nonagenarian and who only speaks Rioplatense Spanish, a few years ago was waiting for me happily and eagerly to show me the pendant with a beautiful cross that one of her great-granddaughters had given her. "It's liturgical steel!", she told me excitedly... in Spanish "Litúrgico" sounds quite similar to "Quirúrgico" (surgical) and logically, for my mother, the religious option made much more sense.

[@CouerDeLion82]

I had a linguistics professor tell this story some 20 years ago that he, as a child, lived in a house with heat registers that were painted red. When his parents later remodeled the home the registers were repainted blue, so he began to call them “blue-gisters” because he had always thought they were called “red-gisters”.

[@ElMoppo1]

Here there's a specific dialect where some people call them "red-chesters", and it drives me mad.

[@TheSmallFrogs]

When I first went to infants' school, aged 5, we learnt the Lord's Prayer by heart long before we learnt to read fluently. I misheard the last part and thought it was "for thine is the kingdom, the power and the chlorine". "Glory" wasn't a concept that had particularly had an impact on me, but chlorine I'd heard of, because it made your eyes sting in the swimming pool.

[@heneagedundas]

"Harold be thy name".

[@garyd5095]

@@heneagedundasI love it, I would say it that way for the humor.

[@pauljordan4452]

For me, it was learning the Our Father aged 5 and realising faith helped with my inherent anxiety.

[@martinstephenson2226]

Dave Allen (Irish comedian) had a good one: in the name of the father, and of the son and into the hole he goes.

[@shryggur]

From the place of ground zero, O Lord, deliver us. From the rain of the cobalt, O Lord, deliver us. From the rain of the strontium, O Lord, deliver us. From the fall of the cesium, O Lord, deliver us. From the curse of the fallout, O Lord, deliver us. From the begetting of monsters, O Lord, deliver us. From the curse of the Misborn, O Lord, deliver us.

[@bencodykirk]

My aunt (who was Mexican) made a great malapropism as a passenger in a car. She was concerned that the driver might not have seen the people about to cross the road in front of them and exclaimed "watch out for the Presbytarians!" - she meant "pedestrians" of course 😂. I miss her - she made such good huevos rancheros.

[@trinefanmel]

I have one from my childhood: whenever we used to sing the song "There is a Gate that Stands Ajar". I didn't know 'ajar' was a word meaning slightly open, so when we got to the refrain (chorus) "Oh depth of mercy, can it be | That gate was left ajar for me?" I always wondered why we were singing about someone leaving us a jam jar by the gate...

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Did you also sing about Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear?

[@joadbreslin5819]

When is a gate not a gate? When it is a jar.

[@donnafiori2565]

When my son was just a little boy, he mistakingly thought refrigerator was "fridge a-later" which totally makes sense, too.

[@YHIEEDC]

Yep I was the same as a kid "fridge" meant cold and "a-later" because you eat food out of it later than it's been put in there!

[@bpekim1]

When my little sister was a tot, her interpretation of spaghetti was “psgetti”.

[@ST52655]

@@bpekim1One of my daughters said bascetti.

[@wes643]

My childhood Mondegreen was hearing “Later on, we’ll perspire, as we dream by the fire” in “Winter Wonderland”.

[@michelejones711]

That's what happens when we get a little too warm. 😅

[@wes643]

@@topherthe11th23 I guess it depends on how paranoid they are.

[@blahdblah0007]

In fairness the actual lyric (conspire) doesn’t work well with what many people first think of when they hear “dream”. An even worse mondegreen here is “expire” 😂

[@airsicklowlander7756]

The internet is great because it lets you find other people who have the same incredibly niche interests as you.

[@indeedgrasshopper]

Yeah, you even end up running into people who enjoy the same books as you. Gotta go, highstorm coming.

[@allendracabal0819]

That is a double-edged sword. It also facilitates the spread of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and the like.

[@bpekim1]

You guys are a delightful team. I love the content and humor in your show! When I was in college in the late seventies Blue Oyster Cult had a hit that was always on the radio called Don’t Fear the Reaper back in a time when you couldn’t easily find printed song lyrics. One of my pothead friends would always sing “don’t fear the reefer” when it played. He argued with me a number of times that I had it wrong as it was his anthem.

[@allendracabal0819]

I like that song, despite its glaring paucity of cowbell.

[@nineteenfortyeight]

😂

[@sevenstars004]

I have frequently heard people say, "taunt" rather than saying, "taut." "Is the string taunt?" Sometimes, I would say politely (acting as if I didn't catch what they actually said, so not to come across as being rude), "yes, it's taut. I just tightened it." There were a few occasions where they would reply, 'you mean, 'taunt?'"

[@loisdungey3528]

😂. " I would never tease/ be mean to my violin/guitar/harp"!

[@moaningpheromones]

no, i mean taut. like no-one ever taught you nothing. that's just me though.

[@RickScully]

My argument for “butt naked” is that my under-educated Italian grandmother who barely spoke English would say that we were “culo nudo” if we didn’t have clothes on. Which translates to “butt naked.”

[@MattMcIrvin]

I don't know which usage is original but "butt naked" is clearly superior in effect and specificity.

[@netgnostic1627]

I bought a whetstone just recently. It only cost a couple of bucks at Dollarama. I sharpened my jackknife and my cooking knives.

[@chezmoi42]

Ah, but did you wet your whetstone?

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

Is drystone a retronym from the eggcorn wetstone? Or is a whetstone used dry simply a whetstone?

[@arayflores]

I learned a few years ago that a co-worker and I had opposite misunderstandings about the same word - "façade." I had only heard the word (or maybe saw it without recognizing it as the same word - like walaa! for viola!) and imagined that it was spelled "pha-sod." I think I imagined "ph" instead of "f" because it seemed kind of fancy. Meanwhile, my co-worker who grew up in Fiji had only seen the word, but never heard it pronounced. In his head it was "fa-kad."" When we figured out our equal and opposite mistakes, we were amazed at the coincidence that we could each be so wrong about the same word!

[@allendracabal0819]

Voilà, not viola, which is an instrument.

[@loisdungey3528]

I'm never quite sure how to pronounce "facade". Is it faasaad?

[@allendracabal0819]

@@loisdungey3528 Basically, yes. The stress is on the second syllable. The first syllable is unstressed, so its vowel has the standard unstressed vowel sound (often called "schwa").

[@mastermarkus5307]

I first saw it in the Pokémon games, and the English version didn't have the ç character, so I thought it was "fakade" for a while.

[@garyswan]

Along with the wet/whet one you mentioned, the other one I keep hearing is 'on tender hooks' which kind of makes sense in a slightly grisly way - you could imagine being held in suspense by tiny hooks into tender flesh! The tenter was a frame for stretching cloth using hooks and so 'on tenter hooks' alludes to someone being under tension or apprehensive. I loved the extension to the eggcorn which Dave Gorman highlighted in one of his shows, where a misheard phrase 'Bowl in a china shop' was being used to mean something that is completely expected and unsurprising. Or to mean something fragile. It's the variations in language that make it so interesting - life would be so dull if we all spoke the same way.

[@loraawalker3618]

Wait, wait, wait ... it's NOT "bull in a china shop"? 😮All this time I've heard that phrase and took it to mean someone clumsy in a delicate situation. In fact, I'd swear I've heard it many times phrased exactly as "bull" rather than "bowl." That really changes the meaning. So the expression I thought I knew is an eggcorn.

[@garyswan]

@@loraawalker3618 Sorry if I've confused you! You've been right all along. The phrase IS 'bull in a china shop', with the meaning you describe. However people have been mishearing it as 'bowl' and creating a new meaning for the misheard phrase. Here's the clip from Dave Gorman explaining it in detail kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3bbiYJ_q75sjJIsi=-WLZoI7YjeP5tivY&t=527

[@jbejaran]

The most prominent mondegreen that always tripped me up and that has a somewhat unsavory alternate meaning was from the song "Blinded By The Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. There's an oft-repeated line in the chorus that actually says, "Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night". The first half of this line is famously heard by many as "Wrapped up like a douche". It's so established, it's actually hard to hear it the correct way even when the correct lyric is known.

[@nineteenfortyeight]

I'm guilty

[@MattMcIrvin]

What makes it more complicated is that the song was originally written by Bruce Springsteen, but Manfred Mann changed the line: it was "cut loose like a deuce" in Springsteen's version. The song is full of evocative nonsense lyrics, but "revved up like a deuce" makes more sense (presumably the "deuce" is a car--and the history of *that* usage seems incredibly complicated, originally referring to a 1932 Ford coupe often modified later into a hot rod, but applied to all manner of other cars since then, usually two-seater sports cars). But it's not intelligibly pronounced.

[@SFNightOwl]

LOVE the show! My post embarrassing eggcorn was writing "towing the line." I don't think I had ever seen it written. So, from now on I am toeing the line!

[@katietoole8345]

When I hear moot point, I always think of Joey from Friends, "Moo point. It's like a cows opinion. It's moo."

[@KristenRowenPliske]

I thought of that, too! 😂😂😂

[@melodycuthbert4840]

I read it first long before I heard it said, so I read it to sound as “moat” because it looked like “boot” & that was pronounced “boat” by the adults around me. I didn’t realize that I was mishearing their mispronunciation of the word “boot.” It was a very embarrassing thing to be corrected on in 10th grade.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

​@@melodycuthbert4840Where is boot pronounced "boat"? Somewhere in Canada? 😮

[@joadbreslin5819]

I am probably a bit older, so I think of a skit from Saturday Night Live starring Jesse Jackson, called "The Question is Moot". Quite funny (as I remember), so I recommend watching if you get the chance.

[@wwciii]

Someone asked my brother when he was quite young what his favorite kind of beans were and he promptly replied "porkun".

[@efretheim]

I remember thinking it was "Porkin' Beans" as a child.

[@tudyk21]

I thought it was porken, as in, beans that have been enporked, or emporked. Filled with pork.😂🐷

[@efretheim]

@@tudyk21 beporked

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

There's so little pork in the canned version, it should rightly be called beans 'n' pork.

[@WildStar2002]

My favorite personal mondegreen was from when I was little and hearing in Sunday School about how Jesus cured a man with "leopard seeds"

[@thewol7534]

My favorite mondegreen was from a kid I was babysitting who was singing the Paul Simon song "Homeward Bound" and warbled "Home where my dog's escaping" instead of "Home where my thought's escaping." No wonder he wanted to get home.

[@sirilucksana]

I initially thought it was "Home, where my daughter's skipping" when I was a kid

[@sydhenderson6753]

Not from me, but I had a friend who heard "I heard cathedral bells dripping down the alleyway" in 'For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her."

[@bunnyrape]

Japanese has these too, for exactly the same reasons. My favourite is probably • Original: タックスヘイブン takkusu hēbun, “tax haven” • Eggcorn: タックスヘブン takkusu hebun, “tax heaven” But it also happens with native phrases that use now-unfamiliar words, such as: • Original: 一寸先は闇 _issun-saki wa yami_ , literally “one _sun_ (≈ 3 cm) ahead is darkness”, i.e. “the future is unknown” • Eggcorn: 一瞬先は闇 _isshun-saki wa yami_ , literally "one moment ahead is darkness" No doubt there are scores of people in Japan these days who have no idea what a "sun" actually is, now that we use the metric system.

[@joadbreslin5819]

Most Japanese know issun because of the well-known fairy tale Issun Boshi (一寸法師). But perhaps they don't make the connection when using the phrase you mentioned.

[@christycoats]

As a young child, when I heard people saying "this morning," I thought they were saying "the smorning," and I wondered what a smorning was.

[@WordsUnravelled]

The smorning sounds like that mystical time of day when the pixies come out. I like it. R

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Swonderful story

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

Smarvelous!

[@steve_s9412]

My great-grandmother, when speaking of occasions when the authorities had to close off an area, possibly because of unexploded wartime bombs, would say "The police threw an accordion round it."

[@claudebeazley]

As a child, I had problems with "raised to the ground", it wasn't till I started shaving that I understood my mistake.

[@MaharGuitar]

I heard a sports commentator say, "He was abducted into the hall of fame."

[@efretheim]

Well, if they refuse to go, whatcha gonna do?

[@piratetv1]

I used to listen to a radio show where the host would say that but i think he intended to say it that way to be funny

[@blahdblah0007]

Sports announcers are great for eggcorns and malapropisms 😂 Part of it can be the meathead aspect, but they also have to talk a lot and do it spontaneously. Mistakes will be made.

[@joadbreslin5819]

Pete Rose was deducted from the Hall of Fame.

[@georgecarlson1460]

My favorite was the child who heard "angels and archangels" and thought it was, "angels and dark angels" so was convinced that angels came in both white and black.

[@brucelangley1716]

Jess, I’d been thinking about “one fell (foul) swoop” as video went one and then you mentioned it at the end. There used to be a yacht on Sydney Harbour named “One Foul Sloop”

[@WordsUnravelled]

Ha! Love that. - Jess

[@chezmoi42]

In our family, as a result of a Spooner moment from Gran, it became 'one swell foop'.

[@otterylexa4499]

I thought "fowl swoop" was intended. Brings images of being dive-bombed by chickens.

[@wayneyadams]

3:20 I use Old-Timer's disease as a joke whenever I can't remember something or mispronounce a word. I never realized that there were people who thought it was correct. Now I wonder how many people didn't get the joke? Even worse, how many people think I am ignorant? "Aaww, poor old guy, doesn't even know the name of his affliction!"

[@dpcnreactions7062]

The character you mentioned reminded me of Mrs Slocombe From the British Tv show "Are you being served" She always says that she is Unanimous in her opinions.

[@emilywagner6354]

There's the episode where she was describing how life began. Mrs. Slocombe: Apparently it all started as a kind of thick soup with little orgasms swimming in it. Captain Peacock: "Organisms," Mrs. Slocombe. Mrs. Slocombe (dismissively): Well, little creepy things. (I loved that show!)

[@yalova84]

I love these new poscasts - thank you. Being rather old and raised in the ULK with no TV when I was young, I read a lot. As a result, I know most of the "correct" versions. But watching the show I was wondering why I knew "champing at the bit". Then I remembered having to learn "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mere. It starts: ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest’s ferny floor: Over 65 years ago, and it still sticks in my brain!

[@serendipity4505]

me too

[@Meganopteryx]

One of my pet peeves is when the boss says we need to "flush out the requirements" vs "flesh out the requirements" of a ticket.

[@peterrobinson3168]

A senior trade unionist being interviewed on TV.... "There have been a lot of allegations made this week and we will leave no stone unturned until the allegators have been found". 🤣

[@geocyclist]

My favorite eggcorn was provided by my great-uncle, a veteran of WW2 from the mountains of North Carolina. After coming home from an appointment, he let us know that he had to clean the bedsheets "'cause the doctor said I had "flea bite us". I swar there ain't no fleas in dis house!"

[@loisdungey3528]

Love it!

[@clintonlemarluke1507]

We often joke, "I'm waiting with a worm on my tongue." to mean "I'm waiting with bated [baited] breath."

[@brianbaresch8450]

"The cat ate some cheese and then waited by the mouse hole with baited breath."

[@tautology_zero]

Not malapropisms; but my wife finds it amusing that I naturally say malaphors - where my brain mixes up various metaphors, something that my kids have started doing deliberately now. For example I often say "We'll burn that bridge when we cross it". Though I've just accepted I get these wrong and now use them deliberately for humour value such as: "Does the pope poo in the woods", "It's not rocket surgery" and "Do you bathe in the blood of a thousand paintings?"

[@efretheim]

I love the term "malaphor" instead of "mixed metaphor". Although I also like my friend's term, "mixed metamorph."

[@zak-a-roo264]

Per the rocket surgery, when a friend is an idiot , we joke , "come on, it's not brain science!"

[@chrisd561]

While at work recently, I received a memo that a placard was to be fixated to the outside of a container. I immediately became obsessed with this malapropism.

[@ngonStrafe]

I would absolutely love for you all to do an episode on American vs British manglings of the poor French language. I don't know for certain who is worse, but after many years of listening to history youtubers from the UK I can - at the least - confidently say that the Brits have a deep and abiding love of mispronouncing French place names in fascinating and fantastical ways.

[@may81944]

Yes please! When I was a travel agent the representative of British Rail visited our office in Nashville to let us know about new service to Bewly. Since I had never heard of such a place I asked that he show me on the map. He promptly pointed to Beaulieu. I think it must be revenge for 1066.

[@scottthurmeier2163]

@@may81944 I had a professor pronounce his name (Beaulieu) as Bolio; my sister had a prof and (and good friend) who pronounces his name (Dube) as Doob.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

​@@may81944Yes, I'm convinced that Britain has felt justified in making French their own. Americans at least try---often hilariously---to get it right.

[@StormhavenGaming]

I'm convinced that this has, at least partly, a basis in social class. French (or more accurately Norman French) was the language of nobility and royalty in England for a long time. Not only would the English speakers of the time have adapted French words into something that sits more easily on English tongues, but they may well have seen pronouncing things in the French style to be pretentious, to be giving oneself airs and graces that one was not deserving of. There is still an element of this in English society today although it is less common than it was.

[@StormhavenGaming]

@@may81944 In fairness, most Brits would have difficulty pronouncing Beaulieu as well!

[@jonathanthegreat2008]

Keep the episodes coming, you two!

[@VicTredwell]

My father, a philosophy professor, brought me up loving and collecting malapropisms, logic miscues and what I have lately learned are called eggcorns. Just this morning I had a good guffaw. "... the witness had a relationship, whether plutonic or otherwise, ..." Glenn Kirschner on "Legal Breakdown", 5/5/24. Is a plutonic relationship an underworld connection?

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

Perhaps it's with someone we used to call radioactive, now toxic. Works either way for plutonium.

[@waynemansfield1527]

Our young son once said he liked the "sore feet" song while listening to "Killing Me Softly With His Song" he heard "Killing my sore feet " and now we can only hear "sore feet" when we hear this song

[@TracySmith-xy9tq]

I'm loving this channel. Etymology fascinates me. I've heard etymology and entomology occasionally confused. As a child, I thought ornery was spelled awnry. There was a car in the sixties, the Karmann Ghia, made by Volkswagen. In my Rhode Island accent, I visualized it being spelled as Common Gear. I once saw disburse used when disperse was meant in a traditionally published book. It seems no one employs proofreaders any longer

[@129140163]

The first time I heard “Karmann Ghia”, I thought it was a Spanish word spelled “Carmenguía”.

[@NorthernTigress]

I'm not sure which category this fits in, but there is a service where I live that allows you to rescue food that a shop or restaurant might otherwise throw away by purchasing it at a discount. The name of the company is "Too Good to Go." My husband and I both refer to it as "Too Good to Throw," and I have to force myself to say it correctly when I go to pick up my food.

[@neskire]

My favourite mondegreen is the song “What a Wonderful World” sung by Louis Armstrong. He sings “and the dark sacred night” but it sounds like “and the dogs say goodnight”. 😏

[@michelejones711]

I have an embarrassing confession to make. I'm in my 40s and have been thinking all these years that's what he said. 😶Wow!!!

[@gfghjfgfghfj]

My favorite egg corn was 10 years ago in Texas. The caregiver for my elderly mom wrote in her report that my mom had "dire rear" earlier that day. I'm sure it was inconvenient and messy, but "dire" seems a bit exaggerated.

[@katze69]

That one I've definitely seen used intentionally, and I'd certainly use it just for fun, too - though probably not in any kind of official report...

[@toddwynia7491]

What a fun episode. Laughed out loud several times. Thank you. Growing up I had a foster sister who was famous for her malapropisms. My favorite one was that she called poinsettias "placentas"

[@llewdis]

I love “Rob Words,” but I think I have a new favorite…

[@lokiva8540]

It might be interesting to do a show on automangle.... How modern "smart" software sometimes takes an accurately spelled term and changes it. For many years I had such functions in office tools, but used plain editors without them for most cases. As an engineer who's contributed to legal and technical standards, and worked with chemicals and electronics and structural issues where a minor error can be the difference between life safety or hazards, I tend to value excluding illiterate and sloppy people from situations where fraud or avoidable hazards result from errors or illiteracy. That results in a paradox if we consider inclusive democracy issues, but a need to exclude most humans including judges and politicians from fields where they're idiots with doctorates.

[@JuliaWinton]

My brother heard the lyrics to You've Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Lucille as the man having "400 children and a croc in the fields" so wasn't surprised the man was upset she'd left.

[@loisdungey3528]

We too. Only I'd forgotten about the croc! We were just horrified at the poor woman having 400 children! 😂

[@loisdungey3528]

I've just remembered, we also used to sing- you took a fine time to leave me lose wheel. With 400 children etc

[@michelejones711]

That's the same mistake my husband and his sister made when they were kids. I commented on someone else's post and just now saw this one. 😂

[@kencory2476]

You picked a fine time to break off loose heel.

[@emilydyer1383]

The late Malachy McCourt wrote a book called "A Monk Swimming"; a title he borrowed from the Hail Mary prayer...."Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee and blessed are those amongst women...." love this show

[@Scottymol]

When I heard The Star-spangled Banner as a child I used to think it was by the dawnzerly light, which sounded like a perfect bright shimmering adjective.

[@Scottymol]

@@topherthe11th23 That's brilliant . So not so silly after all Lol.

[@nineteenfortyeight]

But can José see by the dawnzerly light? The one that gets me is when people give a little rest in "ramparts". Which parts of the ram are we hailing by exactly? To be fair, it's hard to get enough air in that song.

[@joelhahn2501]

The "dawnzer" mishearing is also immortalized in the classic children's book Ramona the Pest.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

Many kids called it the Donzerly Light, which I presume must be a lighthouse.

[@melodycuthbert4840]

@@joelhahn2501I was going to make the same comment! I loved Romona, Beezus, & Henry Higgins when I was growing up.

[@suno8911]

In Spanish Linguistics we call these “popular etymologies”. Less inventive a term than eggcorns, but obviously a reflection of people’s desire to make sense of them. 1. In Mexico, they call kites “papAlotes”, which comes from Nahuatl like “tomato” and “chocolate”, but people will sometimes call them“papelotes” (large paper) instead - you can guess why. 2. This one might be easy to understand as it pertains cognates to English words: people might say adversión” instead of “aversión” because they think it relates to the word for adverse (adverso). 3 My favourite by far is people pronouncing vagabundo (vagabond/beggar) as “vaga-mundo” (world-drifter). There’s also a super famous mondegreen that originated from the Mexican National Anthem. So many people hear a name at the start of a particular verse that it became a literary character and long-standing meme: Masiosare.

[@ElderNames]

In English it is folk etymology. Folk etymology can produce eggcorns, but it also alters the spelling and pronunciation of unfamiliar words to make them more familiar looking. E.g. standgale for staniel, mistaking the meaning of the bird's name as standing (hovering) in the wind, when it was actually stone-cry, referring to the sound it makes. It is the mistaken revision of a word based on a false etymology.

[@sandradermark8463]

Masiosare un extraño enemigo

[@MattMcIrvin]

We have "Richard Stands", a character from the Pledge of Allegiance whom apparently the Republic is for.

[@Ken19700]

For all intensive porpoises

[@CaritasGothKaraoke]

🏆

[@joadbreslin5819]

I prefer the laid-back porpoises.

[@daverose8082]

My 5 year old son came home from school and asked me what a "dance settee" was. When I asked for context he said they had sung a song with the words " Dance then, wherever you may be, He is the Lord of the dance said he".

[@22poopoo]

Omg I thought it was dance settee at infant school too!

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

"I am your density!" ~George McFly, Back to the Future 😂

[@ThatGeezer]

I attended a Church of England primary school, where I learned the Lord's Prayer: "Our father who art in heaven, Harold be thy name..."

[@papamouse5231]

There's an old Gospel hymn that tells us the Lord's name is Andy: "Andy walks with me. Andy talks with me..."

[@charleshayes2528]

@@papamouse5231 Have you heard of the teddy bear called "Gladly". It's eyes were misaligned and it was named from the hymn "Gladly My Cross I'd Bear". I have heard children sing "Jesus wants me for a Zombie" and there is a highly repetitive modern chorus which says "I'm forgiven, I'm forgiven" over and over, to the point of totally losing the meaning. I, and a number of others at theological college, deliberately began to sing "I'm a gibbon" and remarkably, this was never noticed by those not in the know.

[@g.tucker8682]

Harold being the middle name, hence Jesus H. Christ

[@charleshayes2528]

@@g.tucker8682 I was always told the H. stood for "holy". To be honest, most of the other examples I find humorous, but where I come from, "Jesus H. Christ" was always a blasphemy and a more aggressive one than simply saying "Christ". Although I am a Christian, I live in the real world and don't get easily offended with most swearing or even mild blasphemy - even though i might not like it - but "Jesus Christ" or "Jesus, H. Christ" both get to me. On the other hand, I find the Irish expression "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" quite inoffensive, a bit like their attempt to disguise serious swearing by using "feck" as a euphemism for the English term.

[@blancabt]

In Sevilla, Spain, there is the _Torre del Oro_ (golden tower). As a child I thought it was the _Torre del Loro_ (parrot tower), and I thought it was fascinating that they would have a parrot tower as one of their main monuments 🦜

[@darriendastar3941]

That was thoroughly enjoyable. Great fun . Informative, too. 🙂

[@stevewakefield5001]

You two play of each other so well! Love the vlog. Look forward to whatever is next. Thanks!!

[@Tia-vj9ox]

Another favorite gift I received as a teen was Morris Word and Phrase Origins. I still have it and love it! I have a relative,who in an effort to sound intelligent, uses “big words” inappropriately. It is all I can do to not correct him or laugh.

[@andybaker2456]

My French teacher at school was originally from Latvia. When her family moved from Latvia to London, she barely spoke a word of English, but learned a lot from the friends she made at school. One day, she was telling us about some of the colloquialisms she had misheard in her attempt to master conversational English. The example that sticks in my mind is the expression "looking like death warmed up". For many years, she thought the expression was "looking like a death-worn duck"!

[@MattMcIrvin]

shades of "Aqualung"! "Feeling like a dead duck / Spitting out pieces of his broken luck..."

[@Eric1AL]

I love this podcast. You guys have a great rapport. Don't know if this counts but one time I was watching CNN and the reporter called a fight among factions a "row" and pronounced it like "sew" or "go" instead of "now" or "sow". I might have yelled at the TV.

[@WordsUnravelled]

Oh no... R

[@allendracabal0819]

Yanks don't use that word as much as Brits.

[@DeborahMiller-zx9dj]

A similar thing that really gets my goat is when people say” it ain’t half hot” when it’s supposed to be “it’s arf hot”( or” I’m arf hungry or whatever). Arf is short for “arfully “(London pronunciation for “awfully”)

[@dayleennis7662]

I’m an amateur word nerd. I love this!!!

[@jamesoneill5070]

19:43 One of my favourite malapropisms was from the English soap opera Coronation Street. The character Hilda Ogden worked as a cleaner for a local doctor who had a parquet floor which she described as a paraquat floor.

[@go-farm]

I think most of the misunderstandings come from people not reading proper books (as opposed to self authored blogs etc where mistakes go unchallenged)

[@artgold8593]

I used to work as wood-cutting machinist. I used a whetstone quite often. I do really love this channel. Thanks.

[@j.rinker4609]

Malapropisms are sometimes called "Dogberryisms" after Shakespeare's Dogberry. I also love Mondegreens, misheard song lyrics.

[@michelejones711]

One day my family and I were butchering chickens. The kids' job was to do the plucking. I think they were not moving quicly enough, and then my husband light-heartedly told them to hurry before "metamorphosis" set in. We all had a good laugh. Of course, he meant to say "rigor mortis." It was so hot that day, and this helped time go by a little quicker. 😅😮

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

I find these endlessly entertaining! My children when young: Greatfruit definitely makes more sense than Grapefruit. (But I have no idea where tonynails came from.) Also my younger sister and friends were saying 'grosette' and I thought it was some sort of teenie-bopper speak. They were trying to say 'grotesque' and I made the correction but would never shame someone's attempt at a word they've read but never heard.

[@oceanbearmountain]

21:16 i laughed a bit that the CC has it as "chow adios" rather than "ciao" (which i'm sure Rob has discovered Berliners use perhaps almost as often as tschüß! better yet if it's redoubled ("ciaociao!" lol idk why but it makes me laugh, though one must use the correct rising-falling tone pattern))

[@rikkichunn8856]

Here in America, I have even heard "chafing at the bit."

[@johnharperks]

Here in the Midwest US you will sometimes hear an older person say "faunching at the bit".

[@TheValwood]

Which also makes complete sense. If a horse is struggling against the bit, its mouth could become chafed.

[@RareInTheHistory]

The "for intensive purposes" was one my former supervisor used a lot, as well as "ankther words" instead of "in other words." We mostly communicated by email, and she'd send a daily assignment list to the department, so it was very easy to see it wasn't the correct phrase. My other former manager used to say "it's a mute point" instead of "it's a moot point", and that one I had to hear a few times before I realized what she'd really said. They were both very smart and fantastic managers otherwise! I actually miss working for them.

[@jheydens]

Wasn't either "ei" or "ey" an alternative word in old English for "egg?" Could it have actually been "eycorn" in the fifteenth century ? Just wondering. Love your podcasts.

[@monicabender3943]

I learned "epitome" from reading. For a long time I pronounced Epi-Toam (I understood it to be the epic version of a thing), until I saw some one write it as they said it. And honestly when I read it I still in my mind hear Epi-Toam.

[@renlyspeach7622]

Ever seen Brian Regan's "Epitome of Hyperbole?" It's hilarious and 100% inoffensive sfw clean comedy.

[@KusacUK]

My partner is German, and learned words like apostrophe and catastrophe from reading. Even after 20 years in the UK she still sometimes slips back into pronouncing them “appastroff” and “catastroff.” I really should try her with “synecdoche” sometime just to see what she comes up with…

[@moaningpheromones]

and then you learn to be careful of seeing words you don't recognise - internet has fixed that.

[@MattMcIrvin]

The late Jim Varney used to do commercials for various local car dealers in his "Ernest" character, and would sometimes describe the dealership as "the epi-tome of excellence."

[@TatianaBoshenka]

Are there any "fossil" eggcorns that have become correct over time from long usage?

[@Khyranleander]

Not quite what you're looking for, but "an uncle" was originally "a nuncle". Or so many etymology sites claim.

[@allendracabal0819]

Posted elsewhere in these comments is "rack my brain" / "wrack my brain". Apparently multiple authoritative sources treat both as acceptable variations, although only one of them was considered correct initially.

[@EricaGamet]

I believe one they mentioned is now acceptable either way: Coming down the pike/pipe.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

​@@EricaGametThat shows tunnel vision. Call me a piker.

[@EricaGamet]

@@user-gv4cx7vz8t I say pike, as well.

[@joyhancock2703]

Ellis Peters entitled one of her books in the Felce series (Inspector Felce books set in the 1940s or 1950s) 'A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs'. Some authors get their book titles from funny sayings. It helps to sell books.

[@j.rinker4609]

I think medical eggcorns are common because there's a lot of very technical medical terms. People may be focused on those and miss the common language pieces, or not think to question them.

[@leonwilkinson8124]

A mondegreen to which I was subject for many years was from the "Silent Night" Christmas carol. I long thought the lyric was "round John virgin," instead of the correct "yon round virgin." "Round John" made more sense to me, but I also wondered who the heck he might be. In fact, I considered whether it might actually be "Long John virgin" because Long John was certainly a pirate like Long John Silver. Of course, I had no idea as a child what "virgin" meant, and it never occurred to me to question the possibility that there was a pirate in a Christmas carol.

[@chrisnorris9596]

I had a freind who was convinced that the first line of the Queen song "Killer Queen", "She keeps a Moët et Chandon in her pretty cabinet" was "she keeps a motorway shovel in her pretty cabinet".

[@nanoRat]

The one "MONDEGREEN" that drives me crazy is 10,000 Maniac's version of "BECAUSE THE NIGHT" when Natalie Merchant sings "The way I feel when I'm in your hands.", I hear it as "The way I feel in the automat". No matter how hard I try to un-hear it that way, I can't.... AND when I tell other people this, they don't even know what an "automat" is.

[@nanoRat]

@@topherthe11th23 .... not to mention the Bruce Springsteen version which ALSO changes the lyrics. BTW that's great trivia! /Thanks for the reply so I know I'm not crazy.

[@Dodgers564]

I am positive the line is actually "the way I feel under your command." You should investigate. You had me doubting myself because "when I'm in your hands" does sound more gentle than "under your command." But I'm afraid that's what it is.

[@conniebruckner8190]

When our daughter was tiny, just shy of 3, she came to the kitchen without her slippers on. I admonished her: "You know you're not supposed to come into the kitchen with your bare feet!" She looked at me quizzically and delared: " these not bear feet, these my feet!"

[@MyNameIsNeutron]

In "Fragile" by Sting, I always hear the lines "On and on, the rain will fall" as "On and on, the rainbow farm," and "On and on, the rain will say how fragile we are" as "On and on, the rainbow sea, how fresh all we are."

[@FaridTaba]

This is the best, most relaxing and most satisfying podcast to listen to! (Maybe that’s just me, I love words!) And you are both such lovely people. I love your smiles and your respectful, calm and refined way of speaking ❤

[@WordsUnravelled]

What a lovely thing to say! Thank you so much for listening.

[@alvarner1]

My mondegreen: In I'd Really Love To See You Tonight by England Dan & John Ford Coley the chorus is "I'm not talking 'bout movin' in/And I don't want to change your life/But there's a warm wind blowin' the stars around/And I'd really love to see you tonight. For the longest time I was sure they were singing "I'm not talking about millennia..." I still think my lyric is better. As to eggcorns, when I was a kid, for years I said "taken for granite" instead of "taken for granted."

[@ricdavid]

I haven't heard that song in ages, but hand to god what I thought the actual lyrics to this were til just now: "I'm not talkin bout the livin, and I don't wanna change your mind, but there's a warm window and the stars are out, and I'd really love to see you tonight". So uh, at least I got the last bit right.

[@129140163]

I always thought it was “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout the linens”

[@sirilucksana]

I'm not talkin' 'bout the lemons

[@papamouse5231]

I'm not talkin' 'bout Bolivia.

[@laamonftiboren4236]

One I realised I had 'wrong' recently is 'all the range' instead of 'all the rage'. I still haven't got over it.

[@Oldpqlyr]

MY favorite eggcorn (that I purposely use to humorously break someone's concentration) is "lost my (your) train of frogs?" 😅

[@conniebruckner8190]

😅🤣😂

[@jdhenge]

In the song "Loser" by Beck, many people misinterpret the spanish phrase "Soy un perdedor" (I am a loser) as "shut the door". Even native spanish speakers make the mistake. I don't think anyone expects a random spanish phrase to appear in the middle of a song sung in english

[@stoker1931jane]

Same with the Peter Gabriel song: Games without Frontiers. I never expected there to be a French line being repeated. So I heard "She's so popular" instead of 'Jeux sans Frontières'. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

[@eloisesmith6467]

For years, nay decades, for me there were two words for those little appetizer bites that you would get at receptions etc. The aural one sounded like ordurves. I never connected it with the written form, hors d'oeuvres, which in my head sounded like horsdovers. :D

[@tedblack2288]

I have heard hors d'oeuvre pronounced "hours devours"

[@EricaGamet]

We call them horse ovaries in my house. Of course we also call asparagus "spare guts." 😂

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

There ought to be a survey course entitled "Avoiding Embarrassment French."

[@jayarrington240]

I worked in special education for 30 years and my favourite malapropism / mondegreen was when someone referred to someone else who was 'autistic' as being 'artistic'. Truly, I heard it from several different people over the years. Thanks for a great show. All the best.

[@renlyspeach7622]

My two favorite misheard song lyrics: The first is from an obscure song whose name or artist I sadly can't remember anymore. "Knelt down we pray" became "melted wheat bread." And the best is in Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff. It's not even in English (I think it's Latin), but when the melody swells, and the choir gets really powerful, I swear I hear "F--k me buttercup."

[@daigreatcoat44]

You say "carmeena", and I say "carminor". Let's call the whole thing Orff.

[@j.rinker4609]

I love that I missed the beginning of this podcast, because I've been able to binge them, and I LOVE it!