A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing that as a girl she had misheard the lyric "...and laid him on the green" in a Scottish ballad as, "...and Lady Mondegreen".

"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008. Examples in other languages include those cited by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in the Hebrew song "Háva Nagíla", and in Bollywood films.

Closely related categories are Hobson-Jobson, where a word from a foreign language is homophonically translated into one's own language, e.g. cockroach from Spanish cucaracha, and soramimi, a Japanese term for homophonic translation of song lyrics. Mondegreen is an example of an autological word.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org