Lexicon Subtleties: Malapropism

Blog Entry #84

Have you heard of Mrs. Malaprop? If not, let me introduce you to this humorous aunt who gets mixed up with words in Richard Sheridan’s 1775 comedy, The Rivals. Her character is such that she often uses an incorrect word to express herself and that’s where the term ‘malapropism’ originated from. It refers to the intentional or accidental usage of another word that sounds similar to the right word. In French, ‘malapropos’ means “inappropriate”.

Mrs. Malaprop is known to use phrases like “The pineapple of politeness”, instead of “pinnacle of politeness”, and a humorous simile “She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile”, where she’s used allegory instead of ‘alligator.’ 

Shakespeare too, is no stranger to using malapropism. In his plays, one of his characters says “indicted to dinner” in lieu of “invited to dinner”, while the other says “comprehended auspicious persons” in lieu of “apprehending suspicious persons,” notably Constable Dogberry. Thus emerged “Dogberryism” that became synonymous with malapropism. Though malapropism has been largely used to elicit humour, it is also used to deem intelligent characters as uneducated. If they mispronounce words or phrases, it instantly lowers their credibility.

“We will not anticipate the past, our retrospection will now be all to the future.”

-Mrs. Malaprop

Footnotes:

A few other places where writers have used malapropisms or the likes:

Sons of the Desert - Stan Laurel: “nervous shakedown” (correct: breakdown)

All in the Family - Archie Bunker: “house of ill refute” (correct: repute) and “off-the-docks Jews” (correct: orthodox)