Malapropism is named after Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals. She became famous for using the wrong word in a way that sounded absurd but was close enough to the intended word to be recognizable.
One of her best known lines is “He is the pineapple of politeness”, when she means “the pinnacle of politeness.” Because of characters like her, English gained the noun malapropism for this kind of mistake.
A malapropism is not just any error. It usually involves a word that sounds somewhat like the correct one but has a very different meaning.
- Malapropism: “dance a flamingo” instead of “dance a flamenco”
- Not a malapropism: a simple typo or a completely unrelated wrong word
The name also fits historically. Malapropos in French means inappropriate, which matches Mrs. Malaprop’s famously unsuitable word choices.