MALAPROPISM

[engineer27]

noun: the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar

This word came up in our house during our discussion of the word spoonerism, its eponymous origins, and its often humorous effects.

The two words share both aspects. Malapropism originates in a character Mrs. Malaprop in the play "The Rivals" -- a fictional eponym. And its humorous effects are legendary. I present two examples:
1)Former Chicago Mayor Daley at the 1968 Democratic convention: "The policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."

2)A program manager in my company noted that a software engineer had cleaned up the project's software library by removing all the "duplicitous modules".

Could be a fun word to include. I like it because of its analogy to spoonerism.

[gailr]

If you like malapropisms, engineer, here are two links with definitions and examples of mondegreens.

-gailr
¡café olé!