I’ve been having a hard time getting excited about this week’s vocabulary word theme of “Words for linguistic errors”. Sure, they’re kind of funny…but not really funny enough (or useful enough) for me to spend time memorizing them—especially since I’m fairly certain this is the only time they’ll make an appearance in my life. I can’t feign interest enough to make little graphics for them, but for anyone who was actually into this week’s theme, here are the last 2 of the bunch:
Word #17, Eggcorn (noun): An erroneous alteration of a word or phrase, by replacing an original word with a similar sounding word, such that the new word or phrase also makes a kind of sense. For example: “ex-patriot” instead of “expatriate” and “mating name” instead of “maiden name”.
Word #18, Mondegreen (noun): A word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase, especially in song lyrics. For example: “The girl with colitis goes by” for “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes” in the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”.
Now that that’s taken care of, let’s move onto something that I actually care about: Maine. Have you been? No? You’re missing out. The state motto is “The Way Life Should Be” for a reason—it’s amazing here and one of my favorite places to visit. Right now I’m cozied up in a B&B in Portland, about to trek into the blizzard-like conditions for some seafood and beer, and the Maine spirit moved me to share some funny local vocab with all you non-New Englanders out there. Welcome, words #19 & #20, Maine style:
Intrigued by our New England dialect? Check out The Wicked Good Guide to Mainah English. Now on to Oysters and Allagash…
12 Months of Lent 
I kind of like these vocab words. An eggcorn for instance: there is a restaurant in Dayton called Taqueria Mixteca. My sister in law thought it was Taqueria McSteaka. Also a mondegreen: you know the lyrics to that one song that go, “big pimpin’ spendin’ g’s”? I knew someone who though it was “big pimpin’ spinnin’ cheese”.