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In Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy 'The Rivals', a character named Mrs Malaprop reaches for impressive words and grabs the wrong ones, once calling someone 'the very pineapple of politeness' when she means 'pinnacle'. Her name, a pun on the French 'mal à propos', stuck so well that 'malapropism' became the word for that mistake.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals (1775)

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The story behind the card

The Rivals opened at Covent Garden in London in January 1775, when Sheridan was 23. The first night went badly; he revised the play, and within two weeks it was a hit that is still staged today. The comic type is older: in Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' (about 1598), the constable Dogberry reports that his men have 'comprehended two aspicious persons', meaning 'apprehended' and 'suspicious'. It was Mrs Malaprop's name, though, that became the general term. A malapropism swaps in a real word that merely sounds like the right one. It differs from a spoonerism, which swaps sounds between words ('a blushing crow' for 'a crushing blow'), and from an eggcorn, a misheard phrase that still half makes sense, such as 'for all intensive purposes'.

Türkçe oku
Richard Brinsley Sheridan'ın 1775 tarihli The Rivals (Rakipler) adlı komedisindeki Mrs Malaprop, gösterişli kelimelere heveslenir ama hep yanlışını seçer: “nezaketin doruğu” (pinnacle) diyecekken “nezaketin ananası” (pineapple) der. Fransızca “mal à propos” (yersiz) deyiminden türetilen bu ad o kadar tuttu ki bu tür hatalara “malapropizm” denir oldu.

The Rivals, Ocak 1775'te Londra'daki Covent Garden tiyatrosunda sahnelendiğinde Sheridan 23 yaşındaydı. İlk gece kötü geçti; Sheridan oyunu elden geçirdi ve iki hafta içinde oyun, bugün hâlâ sahnelenen bir başarıya dönüştü. Bu komik tip aslında daha eskidir: Shakespeare'in 1598 civarında yazdığı Kuru Gürültü'de (Much Ado About Nothing) inzibat Dogberry, “yakalamak” ve “şüpheli” yerine bunlara benzeyen ama bambaşka anlama gelen iki kelime kullanarak adamlarının iki kişiyi tutukladığını anlatır. Yine de genel terim olan Dogberry'nin değil, Mrs Malaprop'un adı oldu. Malapropizm, doğru kelimeye yalnızca ses olarak benzeyen gerçek bir kelimeyi onun yerine kullanmaktır. Kelimeler arasında ses takası olan “spoonerizm”den (“a crushing blow” yerine “a blushing crow”) ve yanlış duyulduğu hâlde yarı yarıya anlamlı kalan “eggcorn”dan farklıdır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Malapropism
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