As I left Splish Splash was playing and naturally, I couldn't stop singing it and I was still singing it when I arrived home. My brother said, "Stop it; I don't need another EARWORM!" I said, "I'd nearly forgotten that word!" I immediately went to YouTube to hear Bobby Darin and we talked about Kevin Spacey portraying Bobby in the movie Beyond The Sea.
In 2011, I learned the word EARWORM and wrote about it on Sue's News:
EARWORM
I love new and unusual words. I was watching Jeopardy! and learned that "frumb" is another word for "big toe"; I posted about it on Facebook and wrote this horrible pun:
"What should you do if you're walking down the road and your big toe falls off?"
Answer: "CALL THE BIG-TOE TRUCK"
I asked to be excused for the pun but noted that it's difficult to work a word like "frumb" into conversation or a joke.
The comments were wonderful and my Facebook friend Susan Wells added: "earworm: a catchy tune that often gets stuck in your head."
I had never heard of the word. I responded, "Oh, Susan, I will NEVER be able to show my enormous gratitude for your introducing me to "EARWORM"!
I learned that "earworm" is a loan transition from the German "OHRWURM" which means "a portion of a song or other music which repeats within one's mind.".
There are also humorous synonyms for "earworm":
"HUMSICKNESS"
"MUSIC MEME"
"REPETUNITIS"
"TUNE WEDGY"
Last night my brother was walking through the house, humming Pagliacci (but loudly singing the word Pagliacci at the appropriate intervals) which is certainly amazing as he does not like opera or know Italian. I yelled, "What's that about?" He said that he was watching a TV show and it had Pagliacci on it and he couldn't get it out of his head.
EARWORM should not be confused with ENDOMUSIA (musical hallucinations) which is a serious affliction where a person hears music which is not being played.
1 comment:
I haven't forgotten MONDEGREEN either! ML
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