Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

"She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile -- Oh! It gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree!"

Such are the mangled pronouncements of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the 1775 play The Rivals by Irish playwright Richard Sheridan. As the affected, busybody aunt of the play's heroine, Mrs. Malaprop tries to fashion her niece into a proper young lady, albeit with hilarious lexical absurdity. The aunt claims that her neice should "have a supercilious knowledge in accounts." Mrs. Malaprop goes on to say, "I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries...and likewise that she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying."

We've all played the part of Mrs. Malaprop from time to time, unintentionally scrambling and misappropriating words: saying prostate instead of prostrate or "state the oblivious" or "on the spur of the cuff".

These kinds of lexical misappropriations are called malapropisms, from the name of the vain and pompous Mrs. Malaprop of The Rivals. Playwright Richard Sheridan fashioned her character name from the French expression mal a propos, meaning "out of place, unsuitable."

Radio Script > Malapropisms