A malapropism is the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with different meaning, usually with comic effect.

Etymology

The word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "ill suited to the purpose"), is believed to have entered English usage around 1660. The term "malapropism" however, is generally attributed to the public reaction to Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, and in particular the character Mrs. Malaprop. Sheridan presumably named his character Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misspoke (to great comic effect), in joking reference to the word "malapropos." The new term "malapropism" was coined to designate the specific kind of mistake, or inappropriate usage, Mrs. Malaprop frequently made.

Distinguishing features

An instance of misspeech is called a malapropism when:

1. The word used means something different from the word (as indicated by the context in which the word was used) the speaker or writer intended to use.
2. The word used sounds similar to the word that was apparently meant or intended. Using "obtuse" (wide or dull) instead of "acute" (narrow or sharp) is not a malapropism; using "obtuse" (stupid or slow-witted) when one means "abstruse" (esoteric or difficult to understand) would be.
3. The word used has a recognized meaning in the speaker's or writer's language. Simply making up a word, or adding a redundant or ungrammatical prefix ("irregardless" instead of "regardless") or suffix ("subliminible" instead of "subliminal") to an existing word, does not qualify as a malapropism.

These characteristics set malapropisms apart from various other speaking or writing mistakes, such as an eggcorn or spoonerism.

Examples

From The Rivals

• "He's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile." (i.e., alligator)
• "He is the very pineapple of politeness." (i.e., pinnacle)
• "If I reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" (i.e., apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets)

From radio, film, and television

• "It were my secret to successive. Thanks to Jimmy Jenkins my ovulary size is much much not smaller than ever before" - (i.e. "success", vocabulary, and other mistakes). This comes from "The Joe Jefferson Vocabulary Builder Upper" - by Bob and Tom, a humorous recording consisting mostly of malapropisms. Parodies an infomercial for an (evidently unsuccessful) system to improve one's vocabulary.
• "I've got these two albacores around my neck" (i.e. albatross) "It's like the Rhyme of the Ancient Marinade..." (i.e. Rime and Mariner). - Aqua Teen Hunger Force
• "I've gotta consecrate myself on this newspaper." (i.e. concentrate). — All in the Family (Note the nonstandard use of the reflexive, illustrating a Yiddish-German influence on the dialect of New York City.)
• "I want to be effluent mum!" "You are effluent Kimi..." (i.e. affluent) — Kath and Kim
• "What are you incinerating?..." (i.e. insinuating) — Galton and Simpson, Steptoe and Son ("Doodlebug over Shepherd's Bush")
• "I can say that without fear of contraception" (i.e. contradiction) — Hylda Baker was originally a British music hall star who used malapropisms extensively in her stage act. Best known for the TV situation comedy Nearest and Dearest where she continued the tradition.
• "You could have knocked me over with a fender." (i.e. feather) — Jane Ace, one of many malapropisms she used on the old-time radio comedy series, Easy Aces.
• "We heard the ocean is infatuated with sharks" (i.e. infested) - Stan Laurel in The Live Ghost.
• "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e. catastrophe) - Stan Laurel in Any Old Port
• "V.D. Day!" (i.e. V-E Day) — Edith Bunker (as played by Jean Stapleton), on television's All in the Family.
• "Lorraine, my density has brought me to you."; "Yes! I'm George! I'm your density!" (destiny)—George McFly, Back to the Future
• "I'll hunt you and shoot you down like a duck." (dog) — Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Back to the Future III
• "I can't even phantom how that must feel!" (i.e. fathom) — Young girl in a television ad for T-Mobile wherein her father sat strapped into a chair while she used up her "anytime minutes."
• "I resemble that remark!" (i.e. resent) - Stooge Curly Howard, after being insulted by fellow Stooge Moe
• "Let's talk about a very tattoo subject..." (i.e. "taboo") - Various episodes of "Da Ali G Show".
• "I was given an "old tomato", leave or get thrown out..." (i.e. ultimatum)- Will and Grace
• "I'm here tonight to speak out against busting schoolchildren." (i.e "bussing schoolchildren") - Emily Litella from Saturday Night Live
• "Just sing it with no music; you know, Acapulco." (i.e. a cappella)- Suzanne Sugarbaker from Designing Women
• "Eastern and Specific Time." (i.e "Pacific") - Jillian (Brian Griffin's girlfriend) from Family Guy
• "Why aren't I allowed to say the phrase, 'for all intensive purposes?'" (i.e. for all intents and purposes) Doug Heffernan from The King of Queens
• "So guys, bring your wives on down to Furniture Factory Outbreak (i.e. "Furniture Factory Outlet"), for prices so low, they're ecological (i.e., economical)." -- uttered by the late Harlan Jordan, who, in ads for the Muldrow, Oklahoma-based Furniture Factory Outlet, almost always committed a malapropism with the word Furniture, Factory, or Outlet, such as "Furniture Flattery Outlet", "Furrier Factory Outlet", "Furniture Factory Inlet", etc.
• "If there is any justice in the world, Maris Crane and Niles Crane will soon be executed." (i.e. exonerated) - Dr Frasier Crane from Frasier
• "The ironing is delicious." (i.e. irony) - Bart Simpson, after finding Lisa in detention.^[1]
• "You're very observant: the sacred and the propane" (i.e. "profane") — Carmine Lupertazzi Jr.
• "Isn't there like a statue of limitations on that?" (i.e. Statute of Limitations); Cosmo Kramer
• "Yeah, I super-size with you." (i.e. sympathize); Frito from Idiocracy

From popular culture

• "I might just fade into Bolivian, you know what I mean?" (i.e. oblivion) — Mike Tyson
• "I really dig Hannibal. Hannibal had real guts. He rode elephants into Cartilage." (i.e. Carthage) — Mike Tyson
• "I am not going to make a skeptical out of my boxing career." (i.e. spectacle) — Tonya Harding
• "I can shoot with my left hand, I can shoot with my right hand, I'm amphibious." (i.e. ambidextrous) — Charles Shackleford
• "Mark Lee's arms went up like two giant testicles..." (i.e., tentacles) - Jack Dyer commenting on a VFL match (Mark Lee was a former Richmond ruckman)
• "If it's any consolidation ..." (i.e. consolation) — Ken James
• "My nipple."(i.e. dimple) — Malaysian singer Siti Nurhaliza when asked what her best facial feature was.
• "However, they delineate—quotas, I think, vulcanize society." (i.e. balkanize) - George W. Bush
• "Oh, you mean the ones with those disraeli gears?" (i.e. derailleur gears) - Cream roadie Mick Turner, during a conversation between Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker about racing bicycles.^[2]
• "I made a carnal sin (i.e., cardinal), I forgot my words". — singer Brandon Rogers after being voted off American Idol on March 14 2007.
• "But beyond crude oil, natural gas and electricity, the Nymex is also a major platform for trading futures and options contracts in all sorts of precocious metals." (i.e. precious metals)^[3]

In Shakespeare

Malapropisms appear in many works written well before Sheridan created their namesake character; William Shakespeare used them in several of his comedies.

Constable Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing:

• "...you shall comprehend all vagrom men..." (i.e. apprehend, vagrant; Act 3, Scene III)
• "Comparisons are odorous." (i.e., odious; Act 3, Scene V)
• "Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons." (i.e., apprehended, suspicious; Act 3, Scene V)

Launcelot in The Merchant of Venice:

• "Certainly [Shylock] is the very devil incarnal..." (i.e., incarnate; Act 2, Scene II)
• "That is the very defect of the matter, sir." (i.e., effect; Act 2, Scene II)

Elbow in Measure for Measure

• "two notorious benefactors" (i.e., malefactors; Act 2, Scene I)
• "if she has been a woman cardinally given"; (i.e., carnally, Act 2, Scene I)

Uses by other fictional characters

• "Why killing's the matter! Why murder's the matter! But he can give you the perpendiculars." (i.e., particulars, from a scene in Horrible Histories)
• The infants from the show Rugrats constantly used malapropisms.
• Sally Brown from Peanuts often used malapropisms.
• A character in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain requests that Beethoven's Erotica (Eroica) be played at a funeral.
• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin: "I'm so smart it's almost scary. I guess I'm a child progeny (prodigy)." Hobbes: "Most children are."
• In the British situation comedy Nearest and Dearest, the main character Nellie Pledge often uses malapropisms such as "Then he laid prostate on the ground." (i.e., prostrate), "...sat sitting there like a big business typhoon!" (i.e., tycoon), and "I think I can quite safely say without fear of contraception..." (i.e., contradiction).
• The character of Ricky (Trailer Park Boys) uses malapropisms on a regular basis: he calls Sasquatches "Saskatchewans," and says his daughter is just going through "phrases." (i.e., phases)
• Archie Bunker's limited grasp of the English language resulted in a large number of now classic unintentional malapropisms during All In the Family's run (e.g. "vagrant disregard for the law", "the Pope is inflammable," "patience is a virgin"). (i.e., flagrant, infallible, virtue)
• In Only Fools and Horses, Del Boy played by David Jason often uses malapropisms for comic effects, such as "good to be back on the old terracotta" (i.e., "terra firma").
• In The Sopranos, the characters frequently use malapropisms. Tony Soprano, the protagonist played by James Gandolfini, has committed various malapropisms, such as referring to amour fou, French for "crazy love," as "our mofo."
• Tom Stoppard's play On the Razzle features many zany malapropisms that run symbiotic to much of the mistaken identity that occurs throughout the story.
• Rachel Price, in The Poisonwood Bible, uses several malapropisms during her narrations.
• The comic strip Frank and Ernest has a recurring character named "malaprop man" who narrates the strip using malapropisms. In fact, much of this strip features malapropisms.
• "Though I am replicant to spread rumors, I am led to believe the philogy of skeletous beings makes them resistive to magic." -- Lord Rugdumph gro-Shurak, a character in
• Sol Butcher of Sons Of Butcher often uses many malapropisms.(eg:"Beauty is only deep skin, it's what beside her that counts." "When death comes, I'll welcome it with open legs.")
• The character Minako Aino/Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon often accidentally uses malapropisms when using figures of speech, in both the original Japanse version and in the English dub. (eg: She said "No use crying over spilled milk" as "Don't worry about Fish eggs from before" in the original. It was changed into "No use crying over ruined silk" in the English dub)^[4]

Occurrences in real life

• It was reported in New Scientist that an office worker described a colleague as "a vast suppository of information". (i.e., "repository")
• Time reported Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as warning his country against "upsetting the apple tart" of his country's economic success.^[5]
• New Scientist also reported the first-ever malapropism for "malapropism", when, having become aware of his error, the office worker apologised, saying he had committed a "Miss Marple-ism."^[6]

Philosophical significance

In the essay "A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs", philosopher Donald Davidson argues that malapropisms demonstrate that competence in a language is not a matter of applying rigid rules to the decoding of utterances. Rather, says Davidson, it appears that in interpreting others, we constantly modify our own understanding of our language.^[7]

See also

• Bushism
• Colemanballs
• Eggcorn
• Engrish
• Freudian slip
• Mondegreen
• Spoonerism
• Yogiism

Notes