Malapropism: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

A malapropism is the incorrect use of a word in place of a word with a similar sound, either unintentionally or for comedic effect.

For example, if you stop something at its beginning, you have “nipped it in the bud.” However, you may have heard people say “nipped it in the butt.” Or, if someone takes the blame for something they didn’t do, they are a “scapegoat,” not an “escape goat.”

Philosopher Donald Davidson has said that malapropisms show the complex process through which the brain translates thoughts into language.

Malapropisms are sometimes called Dogberryisms.  “Dogberryism” comes from the 1598 Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing in which the character Dogberry utters many malapropisms to humorous effect.

The word “malapropism” (and its earlier form, “malaprop”) comes from a character named “Mrs. Malaprop” in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals. Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks by using words that do not have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. Sheridan chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning “poorly placed.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of “malapropos” in English is from 1630, and the first person known to have used the word “malaprop” specifically in the sense of “a speech error” is Lord Byron in 1814.

Though Shakespeare was an earlier writer than Sheridan, “malaprop/malapropism” seems an earlier coinage than “Dogberryism.”

Malapropisms tend to maintain the part of speech of the originally intended word.  Likewise, substitutions tend to have the same number of syllables and the same metrical structure – the same pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables – as the intended word or phrase.

Here are some examples of malapropisms from plays, movies, TV, etc.:

• The fictional Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The Rivals: “Illiterate him quite from your memory” (instead of obliterate), “he is the very pineapple of politeness” (instead of pinnacle), and “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (instead of alligator).

 

• William Shakespeare used them in a number of his plays, almost invariably spoken by comic ill-educated lower-class characters. In Much Ado About Nothing, Constable Dogberry tells Governor Leonato, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons” (i.e., apprehended two suspicious persons).

 

• Malapropism was one of Stan Laurel’s comic mannerisms. In Sons of the Desert, for example, he says that Oliver Hardy is suffering a nervous “shakedown” (rather than breakdown), calls the Exalted Ruler of their group the exhausted ruler, and says that he and Oliver are like “two peas in a pot” (instead of pod).

 

• Emily Litella, a fictional character created and performed by American comedian Gilda Radner used malapropisms to entertain viewers on the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, including one skit in which she was puzzled over the hubbub surrounding the “plight of Soviet jewelry” instead of Soviet Jewry.

 

• Ring Lardner used malapropism extensively for comic effect. For example, in his short story The Young Immigrunts, the four-year-old narrator repeatedly refers to a bride and groom as the “bride and glum.”

 

• Archie Bunker, a character in the American TV sitcom All in the Family, used malapropisms frequently: he refers, for example, to “off-the-docks Jews” (Orthodox Jews) and the “Women’s Lubrication Movement” (rather than Liberation). Intending to refer to the medical specialized field of gynecology and to a specialist in that field as a gynecologist, he would mispronounce the words as groinecology and groinecologist. (Oh, those were the days!!)

Here are some unintentional malapropisms from media, sports, etc.:

• Australian prime minister Tony Abbott once claimed that no one “is the suppository of all wisdom” (i.e., repository or depository).

 

• Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach of Ireland, warned his country against “upsetting the apple tart” (apple cart) of his country’s economic success.

 

• Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley referred to a tandem bicycle as a tantrum bicycle and made mention of “Alcoholics Unanimous” (Alcoholics Anonymous).

 

• Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra was well known for corrupting speech, such as “Texas has a lot of electrical votes,” rather than electoral votes. 

 

• Texas governor Rick Perry has been known to commonly utter malapropisms; for example, he described states as “lavatories of innovation and democracy” instead of laboratories.

 

• World heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson, upon being asked about his next plans moments after losing in a world title fight with Lennox Lewis, declared that “I might fade into Bolivian” (oblivion).

 

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, a common meme format was introduced where Internet users feigned malapropism by substituting the word “pandemic” with similar sounding words (such as panorama, pandemonium, or panini).

 

• United States congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has used malapropisms in both communications directed at her base as well as when she communicates with the rest of the world, including references to: “peach tree dish” (petri dish), “gazpacho police,” (gestapo), and “fragrantly violated…” (flagrantly), among others.

 

• During the lead-up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker was mocked online after claiming “this erection is about the people” (election). 

I think that is as good a place to stop as any!

Thank you, Wikipedia and Bruce Blakely!