Toe in the Water

A New Mondegreen

A New Mondegreen

You know those sayings that people get wrong and come out with something that makes absolutely no sense? Things like “to all intensive purposes,” “peaked my interest,” and “nip it in the butt.” Apparently, they’re called “mondegreens” - from a Scottish ballad containing the lines:

“They have slain the Earl o' Moray
And laid him on the green”

The second line was commonly misheard as, “And Lady Mondegreen”.

And all this is because today I read a new one to me. It was such a delightful surprise that I actually did laugh out loud. Consider this beautiful misapprehension:

“...and without further adieu…”

I love it and have to work hard to contain my impulse to write back with a question about the goodbye that had been going on so long. Be still, my sarcastic heart!

What really increased its appeal for me was that I have become heartily sick of the phrase “without further ado” because every reaction video I’ve ever watched contains it in the introduction. To hear a fresh rendering of a Shakespearean phrase after five hundred years of repetition was so welcome!

Ah, well, I wonder how long I’ll have to wait for the next one.


Word count: 198