malapropism
1
9.6
- noun
- /ˌmæl.əˈprɑː.pɪ.zəm/
:
malapropismo
- His frequent malapropisms during the presentation led to amused reactions from the audience.
Examples
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And then there's the mother of the term "malapropism"—Mrs. Malaprop from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play, "The Rivals."
Blog text (29) -
You must have missed it, DJ Ron Slomowicz, but this was in reference to Dmitry's malapropism in an earlier episode.
Blog text (4) -
One particular story involves a famous malapropism.
Blog text (18) -
Maybe it's not a malapropism, and maybe it was even intentional, but it's still pretty funny.
Blog text (29) -
I collected malapropisms sent to me during normal email correspondence.
Blog text (1) -
Once you get a reputation for malapropisms, I suppose people begin to assign them to you.
Blog text (29) -
I have a friend who is a native New Englander and who is a practicing attorney who says, "eXpresso," "frustrated," and other malapropisms, and it drives me nuts.
Blog text (1) -
The colorful malapropisms and other linguistic errors of the beggars in the first three chapters help set a humorous tone, which, in turn, signals to the reader what should be expected in the rest of the novel.
Academic text (1994) -
In a hilarious malapropism, she referred to the new theory as a "free-for-all" instead of a "free-for-all."
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The comedian's routine was filled with clever malapropisms that had everyone laughing.
Synonyms
1
7.5
Wrong use of words, rules, or tools
1
9.8
Using a wrong word that sounds like the right one makes people laugh
How Humorous
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Malapropism comes from a comic character, Mrs. Malaprop, who kept using the wrong words that sounded like the right ones and made people laugh. Her name hints at French mal- 'bad' and apropos 'appropriate', so a malapropism is a funny mistake when someone uses a similar-sounding wrong word instead of the correct one.