Original Malapropisms


Here are some of the original malapropisms from Mrs. Malaprop who appears in Richard B Sheridan's play The Rivals (1775).
  1. "...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." [obliterate]
  2. "O, he will dissolve my mystery!" [resolve]
  3. "He is the very pine-apple of politeness!" [pinnacle]
  4. "I have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her;" [proposition]
  5. "Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree."[hysterics]
  6. "I hope you will represent her to the captain as an object not altogether illegible." [ineligible]
  7. "...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." [comprehend]
  8. "...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." [alligator]
  9. "I am sorry to say, Sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small." [influence]
  10. "Why, murder's the matter! slaughter's the matter! killing's the matter! - but he can tell you the perpendiculars." [particulars]
  11. "Nay, no delusions to the past - Lydia is convinced;" [allusions]
  12. "...behold, this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow;" [intercepted]
  13. "I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him;" [desisted]
  14. "His physiognomy so grammatical!" [phraseology]
  15. "I am sure I have done everything in my power since I exploded the affair;" [exposed]
  16. "I am sorry to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her." [article]
  17. "...if ever you betray what you are entrusted with... you forfeit my malevolence for ever..." [benevolence]
  18. "Your being Sir Anthony's son, captain, would itself be a sufficient accommodation;" [recommendation]
  19. "Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" [apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets]
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