Did you know that a fictional character inspired the literary term malapropism?

Almost all of us, at some point or the other in our lives have confused between similar sounding words like statue and stature. Imagine telling a person he has an appealing statue, while you want to mean stature. As we all know, statue means a sculpture of a person or a thing, while stature refers to something entirely different, that is, an individual’s reputation. Well, this is what is called malapropism in literature.  

By definition, malapropism is the incorrect use of a word in place of a similar sounding word, often resulting in humour. Malapropism is usually unintentional, although if can often be used to generate comic effect. However, whatever maybe the intention, the entire purpose of malapropism is to convert serious statements into funny ones. For those who like indulging in wordplay, malapropism is also known alternatively as acyrologia or phonological word substitutions.  

Are you curious to know how the term malapropism came into being? Etymologically speaking, it has been derived out of the French word ‘malapropos’ meaning “being improper or inappropriate.” Apart from this, there is an interesting backstory too! Mrs. Malaprop, who was featured in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s famous 1775 play The Rivals. Now, let us explore the character of Mrs. Malaprop and find out how she influenced the naming and creation of a common literary jargon.  

Mrs. Malaprop: The woman behind Malapropism 
The character of Mrs. Malaprop, the humorous aunt who gets torn between the schemes and dreams of a group of young lovers, dominates Sheridan’s comedy, The Rivals. With her at the centre of the plot, not for once does the audience get bored or a break from laughter. The   funniest aspect of her character is of course the thing she is known for: Using incorrect words to express herself, creating a humorous gap between what she means and what she says. But let’s tell you, Mrs. Malaprop doesn’t do it intentionally. It all happens by accident, or as literary critics put it, this is the result of her desperately efforts to adapt to the high society full of manners and a cultured approach to life. Time and again, she tries to resort to an erudite vocabulary, but lacks the expertise to carry it execute it.   

Words gone awry 
Characters like Mrs. Malaprop try too hard to impress the society with heavy duty vocabulary and often end up mispronouncing, or worse, misusing the words. Here are some examples. 

“You’re a pineapple of politeness.” What? Yes, you read it right. This is a line from Mrs. Malaprop. Here, she actually meant ‘pinnacle of politeness.’  

Here’s another infamous example of Malapropism, courtesy, our Mrs. Malaprop. “She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.” Evidently, she meant ‘alligator’ not ‘allegory.’ Here are some other instances of her humorous slip-ups: Using ‘contagious’ for ‘contiguous’ and ‘geometry’ for ‘geography.’