All in tents and porposes

Aug 7, 2020

A malapropism is a substitution of one word for another with a similar sound, but different meaning. Example: He’s the pineapple [instead of pinnacle] of politeness.

A mondegreen is the substitution of a word or phrase in a song or text for a similar-sounding one. Example: “José [instead of Oh say], can’t you see…” at the beginning of the National Anthem (understandable if you know that “José” is typically pronounced “Hosay” by “Anglos”).

An eggcorn is the substitution of a word for a similar-sounding one, where the original meaning of the phrase survives, in some way. That’s the big difference between an eggcorn and the two substitutions above. Example (from my own past): “I’m sick entire…” instead of “I’m sick and tired…". I had never seen the phrase in print (at least not at a conscious level) and thought that the ungrammatical sue of “entire” was an interesting idiom.