malapropism

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A malapropism (also called a Dogberryism or acyrologia) is the substitution of a word for a word with a similar sound, in which the resulting phrase makes no sense but often creates a comic effect. It is not the same as an eggcorn, which is a similar substitution in which the new phrase makes sense on some level. Occasionally, a phrase is substituted for the original, e.g. Stan Laurel said "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e., catastrophe) in Any Old Port!.

Etymology

The word malapropos is an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "ill-suited").^[1] The earliest English usage of the word cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1630. Malaprop used in the linguistic sense was first used by Lord Byron in 1814 according to the OED.

The terms malapropism and the earlier variant malaprop come from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, and in particular the character Mrs. Malaprop. Sheridan presumably named his character Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misspoke (to great comic effect), in joking reference to the word malapropos.

The alternative term "Dogberryism" comes from the 1598 Shakespearean play Much Ado About Nothing, in which the character Dogberry produces many malapropisms with humorous effect.^[2]

Distinguishing features

An instance of mis-speech is called a malapropism when:

1. The word or phrase that is used means something different from the word the speaker or writer intended to use.
2. The word or phrase that is used sounds similar to the word that was apparently meant or intended. Using obtuse (wide or dull) instead of acute (narrow or sharp) is not a malapropism; using obtuse (stupid or slow-witted) when one means abstruse (esoteric or difficult to understand) would be.
3. The word or phrase that is used has a recognized meaning in the speaker's or writer's language.
4. The resulting utterance is nonsense.

These characteristics set malapropisms apart from other speaking or writing mistakes, such as an eggcorns or spoonerisms.

Simply making up a word, or adding a redundant or ungrammatical prefix (irregardless instead of regardless) or suffix (subliminible instead of subliminal) to an existing word, does not qualify as a malapropism.

Examples in English language

Mrs. Malaprop

All of these examples are from Sheridan's play The Rivals.

• "...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." (i.e. obliterate; Act I Scene II Line 178)
• "...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." (i.e. comprehend; Act I Scene II Line 258)
• "...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." (i.e. alligator; Act III Scene III Line 195)
• "...if ever you betray what you are entrusted with... you forfeit my malevolence for ever..." (i.e. benevolence)
• "Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs !" (i.e. apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets)

Shakespeare

Malapropisms appear in many works written well before Sheridan created their namesake character; William Shakespeare used them in a number of his plays.

Constable Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing:

• "Comparisons are odorous." (i.e., odious; Act 3, Scene V)
• "Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons." (i.e., apprehended, suspicious; Act 3, Scene V)

Launcelot in The Merchant of Venice:

• "Certainly [Shylock] is the very devil incarnal..." (i.e., incarnate; Act 2, Scene II)
• "That is the very defect of the matter, sir." (i.e., effect; Act 2, Scene II)

Elbow in Measure for Measure

• "two notorious benefactors" (i.e., malefactors; Act 2, Scene I)
• "if she has been a woman cardinally given"; (i.e., carnally; Act 2, Scene I)

Nurse in Romeo and Juliet:

• "If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you." Benvolio then responds "She will indite him to some supper." (i.e., conference, invite; Act 2, Scene IV)
• "I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer." (i.e., propose; Act 2, Scene IV)

Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

• Bottom says he will "aggravate" his voice when he really means he will "moderate" it. (Act 1 Scene II)
• Bottom says "deflowered" when he means "devoured". (Act 5 Scene I)

The First Clown in Hamlet

• "... crowner’s quest ..." (i.e. coroner's inquest; Act 5, Scene I)

Malapropisms by other writers of fiction

• Stan Laurel often used malapropisms in the Laurel and Hardy films:
  • "We heard the ocean is infatuated with sharks" (i.e., infested, although Ollie erroneously corrects him as meaning infuriated) - The Live Ghost.
  • "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e., catastrophe) - Any Old Port!
  • "We'd like a room with a southern explosion" (i.e. exposure) - Any Old Port!
  • "The doctor said I might get hydrophosphates" (i.e. hydrophobia) - Helpmates
  • "She said honesty was the best politics" (i.e. policy) - Sons of the Desert
  • "We floundered in a typhoid" (i.e. typhoon) - Sons of the Desert

• A great many cartoon writers use the form as well:
  • "Brudder, you got a preposition" and "That thing will give you a conclusion of the brain" (i.e Proposition, concussion) - Bugs Bunny
  • "My uncle had a problem with his probate and he had to take these big pills and drink lots of water." (i.e., prostate) - Roger Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  • "The ironing is delicious." (i.e., irony) - The Simpsons Bart Simpson, after finding Lisa in detention.^[3]
  • "Because I like you, I'll even do it pro boner." (i.e., pro bono) - Bart Simpson agreeing to help Seymour Skinner with his love life.^[4]
  • "As Bob is my witless."(i.e. God, witness) - Rugrats
  • "I'm going to get tutored!" (i.e neutered)- One dog bragging to another in a Gary Larson Far Side cartoon. This could also be considered a mondegreen since the dog misheard his master.

• The writers of The Sopranos often used malapropisms:
  • "...prostate with grief." (i.e., prostrate)
  • "Create a little dysentery among the ranks." (i.e. dissent)

• As did the writers of many comedy programs:
  • "He didn't confess. You're just trying to make me admit something I didn't do. I know all about reverse biology, buddy. I'm not an idiot." (i.e., psychology) – Jason Lee as Earl Hickey on NBC's My Name Is Earl
  • "I want to be effluent mum!" "You are effluent Kimi..." (i.e., affluent) - Kath and Kim
  • "What are you incinerating?..." (i.e., insinuating) — Steptoe and Son ("Doodlebug over Shepherd's Bush" episode, written by Galton and Simpson)
  • "No, a moo point. Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo." (ie, moot) Joey Tribbiani on NBC's Friends
  • "Good to be back on the old terracotta" (i.e., "terra firma") - Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses

• Ringo Starr's Aunt Jessie also used a malapropism in Magical Mystery Tour: "Don't get historical!" (i.e., hysterical)

• Officer Crabtree of the British comedy program 'Allo 'Allo speaks atrocious French which is rendered in the series as English filled with malapropisms. For example, he recalls a "nit on the bonk of the Thames" (i.e night, bank) with a female "secret urgent" (i.e. agent). Another regular of his is a welcome as he enters René's Café; "Good Moaning" (ie Good morning)

Malapropisms by real people

• Malaproisms are often quoted in the media:
  • It was reported in New Scientist that an office worker described a colleague as "a vast suppository of information". (i.e., "repository") The worker then apologised for his "Miss-Marple-ism". (i.e. malapropism) ^[5] New Scientist reported it as possibly the first time malapropism has been turned into a malapropism.
  • Time reported Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as warning his country against "upsetting the apple tart" (ie., "apple cart") of his country's economic success.^[6]
  • "It's great to be back on terra cotta!" (i.e., Terra firma) — John Prescott, a British politician echoing Del Boy (see above).^[7]

• Reality TV contestants often utter malapropisms:
  • "I don't want to be an escape goat ..." (i.e. scapegoat) - Jade Goody on the third series of Big Brother UK
  • "I made a carnal sin (i.e., cardinal), I forgot my words". — singer Brandon Rogers after being voted off American Idol on March 14, 2007.
  • "Alcohol, as they say, helps you let down your prohibitions." (i.e., "inhibitions) - A contestant on ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme

• Former United States President George W. Bush often uttered malapropisms. He was particularly known for mixing up commensurate and commiserate:
  • "See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate... the comm-... the... the... the... - not 'commiserate' - the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief." (i.e. commensurate)- Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2000
  • "I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level commiserate with keeping the peace." (i.e. commensurate)- Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2000
  • "I want to remind you all that in order to fight and win the war, it requires an expenditure of money that is commiserate with keeping a promise to our troops to make sure that they're well-paid, well-trained, well-equipped." (i.e. commensurate) - Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
  • "We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile." (i.e. hostage) - Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2000
  • "When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried and persecuted as a war criminal." (i.e. prosecuted) - Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 2003
  • "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." (i.e. alleviate) - Interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

• Mound, MN resident James J. Jackson - and former high school English teacher - especially appreciates this series of malapropisms:
  • A quarry has arosen from the rear of the audiotorium regargling the use of baking sodas as an anticdolt for strained teeth.

Misapplications and dubious uses of the term

Alanis Morissette unintentionally misused the term 'malapropism' when she commented on her misuse of the term 'ironic' within her song "Ironic".

Ringo Starr is known for his many verbal gaffes. Two phrases in particular are often quoted as malapropisms: A Hard Day's Night, and Tomorrow Never Knows.

A Hard Day's Night was thus described by John Lennon in Playboy in 1980: "...it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism..." In fact, Ringo had either substituted day for night and immediately corrected himself, or juxtaposed the two words without thinking (see this song's main article). Neither version qualifies as a malapropism: day and night do not sound similar, and there is no substitution in the other version.

Tomorrow Never Knows was an off-the-cuff comment made at an interview in 1964. Since it is not clear whether Ringo intended to say this or some other phrase, no conclusion can be drawn whether or not this is a malapropism.

Examples in the Russian language

• The word rynda for "ship's bell". The English phrase "Ring the bell!" was heard by Russian seamen as "Ryndu bey!", i.e., "Hit the rynda", rynda being the word for the tsar's bodyguard. Accordingly, the phrase "to hit the rynda" was used to mean "to signal time with the ship's bell", and later the bell itself has become commonly known as ship's rynda".^[8][9]

Philosophical significance

In the essay "A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs", philosopher Donald Davidson argues that malapropisms demonstrate that competence in a language is not a matter of applying rigid rules to the decoding of utterances. Rather, says Davidson, it appears that in interpreting others, people constantly modify their own understanding of our language.^[10]

See also

References