These kinds of things are called âmondegreensâ because once someone (I donât know who) died and âthey laid him on the green.â One of my sisters taught me this less-known factoid.
Hereâs mine:
When I was little I thought that nipples were nickels, which caused a great deal of mirth when it came out (and embarrassment for my 5- or 6- or 7-year-old self . . . ah well). Nickels made sense to my child brain, being round and kind of flat. What did I know? I was just a kid! 
When my kids were little they used to say âbumocksâ rather than âbuttocksââŚwhich I loved and of course it makes perfect sense too.
Many years ago my wife and I were being shown an apartment by the landlord who was Chinese and spoke with a heavy accent. My wife was pregnant and we had our other young daughter with us as well. We began talking about how great it will be when our two kids could play together and be friends and the Chinese gentleman said âYesâŚunless there is sniveling rivalryââŚhe meant of course sibling rivalryâŚwe held our laughter in until we had left.
Those are totally yummy!
Oh wow thanks Glen that made me laugh so much!
Mine isnât a funny double meaning but was perplexing for me: a stitch in time saves nine.
My mum seemed to say it a lot and other ppl understood. I never gleaned from the context either.
It just seemed like this weird blank-in-meaning thing she said. Omg laughing more now.
Nine was a noun, an object in itself. I didnât get that there was a silent end to the sentence, it didnât occur to me that one stitch might save nine stitches⌠not for years. I mean that is a random number of stitches to save too right. I guess it rhymes with time.
How odd that I didnât think to ask for clarification. It was probably the âlaughing atâ I wanted to avoid. Fair enough.
Saves nine what?!! Why does no one finish the sentence?!! Nine what??!
Just nine Glenn. It saves nine.
OMG I just snort laughed!!
If we didnât have that stitch then counting to 10 would look like thisâŚ1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10âŚand counting down a rocket launch would be disasterousâŚand we couldnât dial 911âŚbut, thank goodness for that blessed stitch because it saved 9 and now we can can call emergency services and launch rockets. That stitch is a hero!!!
