{"id":2808,"date":"2026-07-02T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=2808"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T17:13:12","slug":"word-of-the-week-lyricosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2026\/07\/02\/word-of-the-week-lyricosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Lyricosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Creedence<\/a>While enjoying the July 4th holiday, outside if you can bear the heat wave, turn on some music. Then consider how you might mishear the lyrics to many a popular song.<\/p>\n

“More than a woman,” a 70s hit, became “Bald-headed woman.” I can provide many more examples of lyricosis, or if you prefer Grammar Girl’s term<\/a>, a Mondegreen, from a writer named Sylvia Wright who misheard a Scottish ballads’ words “and laid him on the green” as “And Lady Mondegreen.”<\/p>\n

I have a feeling that lyricosis will outlive its rival, though the OED prefers<\/a> Mondegreen, offering no entry for lyricosis, and dates Mondegreen’s first use to 1954. I disagree; “lyricosis” has the right root and affix to make it resemble a problem of the ears. “Mondegreen” is a bit too precious and obscure to catch on as slang when we are talking about Abba’s misheard lyric “Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seven teeth.”<\/p>\n

You youngsters might think lyricosis only afflicts those who listen to “Dad Rock” (as if The Ramones would ever qualify, after writing “Teenage Lobotomy<\/a>“). I disagree: maybe the digital equipment plugged into your fully-functional ears does deliver crisper sound than radio or scratchy LPs, but if a singer slurs any words, you might suffer from lyricosis yourself. While I didn’t ask for AI help, it helped anyway during a Web search, noting that in Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” many hear “All the lonely Starbucks lovers” instead of “Got a long list of ex-lovers,” which seems a stretch but it is funny. That’s the point of lyricosis.<\/p>\n

Our word is a neologism, much like musician Steve Miller’s term “Pompatus<\/a>” that I covered here.<\/p>\n

Remember, readers, at the cookout, don’t kiss a fly. `Happy Fourth of July.<\/p>\n

Also don\u2019t be afraid to send me misheard lyrics, or words and metaphors worth covering. Email me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leave a comment below. Want to write a guest entry? Let me know!<\/p>\n

See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image source: Creative-Commons image of Creedence Clearwater Revival, looking for that bathroom on the right.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While enjoying the July 4th holiday, outside if you can bear the heat wave, turn on some music. Then consider how you might mishear the lyrics to many a popular song. “More than a woman,” a 70s hit, became “Bald-headed woman.” I can provide many more examples of lyricosis, or if you prefer Grammar Girl’s … Continue reading Word of the Week! Lyricosis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87405,87419,87417,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etymology","category-music","category-neologism","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2808"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2818,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}