virundum

Portuguese

Etymology

The term comes from a mishearing of the first line in the Brazilian National Anthem: “Ouviram do Ipiranga as margens plácidas” (misheard as “O virundum Ipiranga...”), but the origin of the mondegreen sense as in English is uncertain.

A folk etymology states it was coined by journalist, theater critic, theater director and Brazilian writer Paulo Francis in the 70s in O Pasquim and made popular by Henfil cartoons. On the internet, one of the oldest attestations comes from the 2003 blog Virunduns.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /vi.ɾũˈdũ/

• Rhymes: -ũ
• Hyphenation: vi‧run‧dum

Noun

Examples
“Meu pai me ensinou que os cara era underground.” (“They'll find pieces of you scatted on the ground”) from Misfits's “Walk Among Us” “Eu perguntava: tu e o holandês?” (“Eu perguntava: do you wanna dance?”) from Roupa Nova's “Whisky a Go-Go.” “Trocando de biquíni sem parar” (“Tocando B. B. King sem parar”) from Claudio Zoli's “Noite do Prazer.”

virundum m (plural virunduns)

1. (Brazil, linguistics, neologism) mondegreen (error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase, possibly in a different language)

   Synonym: (Portugal) tiocidade

References

• “virundum”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2026

Further reading

• virundum on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^pt