Malapropisms
Created | Updated Sep 12, 2004
I was tempted to write this Entry after Mrs RBA just informed me that she had found a 'weasel' in the flour. Checked hootoo and found that there wasn't an Entry specifically with this title. I've always been interested in wordplay e.g. Malapropisms, Spoonerisms etc so decided to 'go for it'. I will add to this over a period of time. Anyone who has any good ones, please let me know.
As a starter, just pinched the following from someone elses Entry:
A
malapropism is the ludicrous misuse of a word, so called from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's play The Rivals. She herself is named after the French phrase 'mal รก propos'). Often a malapropism is used where a difficult to pronounce word is substituted with an inappropriate homophone (qv) for comic effect. For example, 'I'm at the pineapple of my success' (instead of pinnacle).
References
The Game of Words. William R Espy. WolfePublishing Ltd (1971)