Malapropism
The comic misuse of a word for one that sounds like it — a staple of characterisation and unintended honesty.
A malapropism is the substitution of a word for a similar-sounding one, usually with comic effect. The term comes from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's 1775 comedy The Rivals, whose confident errors ('a nice derangement of epitaphs' for 'a nice arrangement of epithets') gave the figure its name. Shakespeare's Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing is an earlier practitioner in English.
Malapropism functions in three ways in written work. As characterisation, it marks a speaker who is reaching above their vocabulary. As comedy, it produces the small delight of a wrong word landing in the right place. As unintended honesty, it sometimes reveals what the speaker actually thinks, since the mistaken word is often more accurate than the intended one.
In quotation culture, alleged malapropisms are one of the most common sources of misattribution. Lines that sound like verbal blunders are pinned to Yogi Berra, George W. Bush, or Samuel Goldwyn regardless of whether they said them; if you cannot find a primary source, treat the malapropism as folklore.
“She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.”
Keep reading the glossary
A paradoxical or malapropistic quotation in the style of baseball manager Yogi Berra — accidentally profound.
A clever, often spontaneous remark that delivers humour through verbal ingenuity.
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.
Reproducing a quote with the wording changed — even if the source is correct.