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.[1]

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
  1. Sérgio Rodrigues (2023 May 31) “Tudo é narrativa, diz a narrativa”, in Folha de São Paulo‎ (in Portuguese), archived from the original on 2023-05-31

Further reading

virundum on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia pt

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