I'm not convinced by the idea that I'm going to hear what I have been primed to hear argument. Even though I have thought that the classic example of mishearing "send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance" for "send reinforcements. we're going to advance" would not have worked down a field telephone in time of battle, unless the recipient was an idiot, because he would have expected a message about military matters.

In this case, we have two words which were linked in the mind of the speaker, and expressed strongly, like expletives. They sounded like English, not like a Latin language. The first one definitely had the "uckin" sound in the middle, with a strong suggestion of "ng" at the end. I wasn't so sure of the "f", but it wasn't a sound like "m" for example, and involved some breath sound. The second began with the same sound as in the middle of the first word, and had a long "oo" in the middle, ending with an "s", which is always more audible, hence whispering is not a good way to be unheard.

ducking coots? bucking cooks? hucking coombs? sucking coops? They have to be words which make sense together and in the context, don't they?

Penny