malapropism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.

   The script employed malapropism to great effect.

2. 2
   noun

   An instance of this; malaprop.

   The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language.

Simplified etymology

Malapropism was formed in the mid-19th century from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan’s 1775 comedy The Rivals who repeatedly misuses long words. Sheridan based her name on malapropos, an earlier borrowing from French mal à propos ‘inappropriate’.

From the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan + -ism. As dramatic characters in English comic plays of this time often had allusive names, it is likely that Sheridan fashioned the name from malapropos (“inappropriate; inappropriately”), from French mal à propos. Mrs. Malaprop is perhaps the best-known example of a familiar comedic character archetype who unintentionally substitutes inappropriate but like-sounding words that take on a ludicrous meaning when used incorrectly.

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