In Richard Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals, a character named Mrs. Malaprop often uses a comically incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, hence the word malaprop. Here are a couple of contemporary examples:
“Alien visitors are just a pigment of your imagination.”
“I resemble that remark.”
Comedian Norm Crosby and coach Yogi Berra were both quite adept at dealing out the malaprops, but the often unknowing master of this type of language-mangling was our 43rd president George W. Bush. There even exist a number of collections dedicated to his stumbles.
