Misdivision, in the context of this column, has nothing to do with arithmetic, thankfully. It's a process of words being formed from the division of letters between words.
Take the word "apron," the item you may wear to keep from splattering yourself while cooking. This was originally "a napron" in Middle English, related to the Middle French word for napkin.
An "adder" was originally "naddre." Its origins twisted a serpentine path back from Old English and Old High German and the Latin word for water snake, "natrix."
The roots for "orange" go back to the Sanskrit word for orange tree, "naranga."
Those are cases where the "n" moved away from the rest of the word. At other times, the "n" joined the word.
The word "newt," as in the little salamander, used to be "an ewte."
"Nickname" came from "an eke name," which meant an extra name.
"Notch" came from "an otch," which meant a cut or a slash.
The archaic terms for "uncle" and "aunt" were "nuncle" and "naunt."
In at least one case, a "d" defected. "Daffodil" came from the Dutch language. "De affodil" was a variation on asphodel, a flowering plant.
Most of this misdivision business happened in the 1400s and 1500s. I tried to prove that all this had something to do with Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press in 1440, but I couldn't find any evidence of that. I will keep looking.
KISS THIS GUY
Probably you know what a mondegreen is, but you didn't know it had a name. In the 1950s, writer Sylvia Wright admitted to misunderstanding a line in an early 18th-century Scottish ballad, "The Bonny Earl of Murray."
The real lines were:
They hae slain the Earl of Murray.
And hae laid him on the green.
Wright thought the second line was:
And Lady Mondegreen.
So a mondegreen has come to be the embarrassing moment when you think you hear one thing, but you're way off. Often it happens with song lyrics.
In "Purple Haze," "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" is what people thought Jimi Hendrix was singing.
The real line was, "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky."
From "Dancing Queen," "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen" was not what Abba wrote.
In fact, it was "See that girl, watch the scene, diggin' the dancing queen."
And in the song "Beast of Burden," the Rolling Stones don't sing, "I'll never leave your pizza burning."
They sing, "I'll never be your beast of burden."
The title of Malachy McCourt's memoir, A Monk Swimming (HarperCollins, 1999) comes from the misinterpretation of a line from the Catholic prayer Hail Mary, "Blessed art thou, amongst women."
My young friends Justin and Jordan were recently singing the Monkees song "I'm a Believer," covered by Smash Mouth in the first Shrek movie. The kids sang, "And I'm so ashamed. Now I'm a believer." I shocked them a little when I told them the first line is really, "And I saw her face."
Mondegreens are why I never sing in public. Well, that and also I sing terribly.
Sources: Merriam-Webster, grammar.about.com, kissthisguy.com
Reach Bernadette at
bkwordmonger@gmail.com
ActiveStyle on 03/06/2017