Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1800-1900
Origin: Mrs Malaprop character who uses words wrongly in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Sheridan, from French mal à propos 'not appropriate'

malapropism

 noun
     
mal‧a‧prop‧is‧m [countable] literary
an amusing mistake that you make when you use a word that sounds similar to the word you intended to say but means something completely different
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
 
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