malapropism

See also: Malapropism

English

WOTD – 10 February 2007

English Wikipedia has an article on:

malapropism

Etymology

From the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan +‎ -ism. As dramatic characters in English comic plays of this time often had allusive names, it is likely that Sheridan fashioned the name from malapropos (“inappropriate; inappropriately”), from French mal à propos. Mrs. Malaprop is perhaps the best-known example of a familiar comedic character archetype who unintentionally substitutes inappropriate but like-sounding words that take on a ludicrous meaning when used incorrectly.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæləpɹɒpˌɪzəm/
(US) enPR: mălʹə-prä-pĭzʹ-əm, IPA^(key): /ˈmæləpɹɑpˌɪzəm/
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

malapropism (countable and uncountable, plural malapropisms)

(uncountable) The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.
The script employed malapropism to great effect.
(countable) An instance of this; malaprop.
The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language.

The humor comes from all the malapropisms.

Alternative forms

Malapropism (rare)
malapropoism (obsolete)

Synonyms

(instance of malapropism): malaprop, catachresis

Translations

the blundering use of a similar-sounding expression

Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Dutch: verhaspeling (nl) f
Finnish: malapropismi
French: abus de langage (fr) m, malapropisme (fr) m, impropriété (fr) f
Hungarian: paronimák felcserélése, paronimák összekeverése
Irish: mífheilteachas m
Japanese: 言い間違い (ja) (iimachigai)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: xeletbêjî (ku), malapropîzm
Manx: neuchooieid focklagh
Polish: malapropizm (pl) m
Russian: малапропи́зм (ru) m (malapropízm)
Scottish Gaelic: ain-eirmseachd f
Spanish: gazapo (es) m, malapropismo m, yerro (es) m
Tibetan: ཚིག་བེད་སྤྱོད་བྱེད་སྟངས་ནོར་བ (tshig bed spyod byed stangs nor ba)