Mondegreen

Aha! Did you read my last post and wonder what the hell a mondegreen is?

A mondegreen is a new word that comes about from the mishearing of syllables of other words.

For example, the word "nickname" came about when people said, "an ekname" - a word for an additional name. Have you ever listened to music and learned that the lyrics are not what you thought they were? Remember the Taylor Swift drama when everyone thought she said "Starbucks lovers?".

The Ampersand

Meet the long lost letter of the alphabet - the &.

The ampersand?

Yep.

Back in the 1800s, kids would sing "x y z and per se and (&)". Per se meaning "and on its own". Later, it was dropped for the alphabet, but it came to be known from its mondegreen, ampersand.