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   Word of the Day for Monday November 26, 2001:

   malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun:
   The   usually  unintentionally  humorous  misuse  of  a  word,
   especially  by  confusion  with one of similar sound; also, an
   example of such misuse.

     At  15,  Rachel, the whiny would-be beauty queen who "cares
     for  naught  but  appearances,"  can think only of what she
     misses:  the  five-day  deodorant pads she forgot to bring,
     flush  toilets, machine-washed clothes and other things, as
     she  says  with  her willful gift for malapropism, that she
     has taken "for granite."
     --Michiko  Kakutani,  "'The  Poisonwood  Bible': A Family a
     Heart of Darkness," [1]New York Times, October 16, 1998

     He  also  had, as a former colleague puts it, "a photogenic
     memory"--a  malapropism  that  captures  his  gift  for the
     social  side  of  life,  his Clintonian ability to remember
     names of countless people he has met only briefly.
     --Eric Pooley and S.C. Gwynne, "How George Got His Groove,"
     [2]Time, June 21, 1999
     _________________________________________________________

   A  malapropism  is  so called after Mrs. Malaprop, a character
   noted  for  her  amusing  misuse  of words in Richard Brinsley
   Sheridan's comedy [3]The Rivals.

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/
   2. http://www.time.com/time
   3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198319088/ref=nosim/lexico


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