Malapropism

A malapropism (mal-a-prop-izm) is a phrase in which one or more of the words is substituted with another, rendering the phrase or sentence completely nonsensical. The origin of the word is from Richard Sheridan’s Restoration comedy The Rivals, in which one of the characters, Mrs Malaprop, makes such mistakes on a regular basis. Her name is derived from the French mal à propos, meaning inappropriate.

A couple of her own examples from the play:

“I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him”

“She might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying”

So far, so not very hilarious. The comedy was written in 1775, so I probably shouldn’t expect too much. One example that I came across was “My cousin says she has a sebaceous sister”.  The rich and famous are not exempt from these verbal cock-ups either. I particularly like Valerie Singleton’s delightful “We seem to have unleased a hornet’s nest”. Cilla Black came up with “Your ambition…is to abseil across the English Channel”.

Of course, no text on the malapropism would be complete without an honourable mention to President George W Bush. He has such a vast back-catalogue of gaffes and errors that the malapropism is often now known as the “Bushism”. Some gems:

“Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?”

“You’re working hard to put food on your family”

“We are making steadfast progress”

“…weapons of mass production..”

It would be remiss of me to leave you without the classic: “They misunderestimated me…”