來自18世紀戲劇人物Mrs Malaprop,她經常由于發音不準或出于幽默犯下類似的錯誤，比如把contagious countries念成contiguous countries.其人名來自法語短語mal a propos,不合適的，mal,壞的，不良的，propos,放置，詞源同propose.類似的錯誤比如two 包子，土包子。
英文詞源
malapropism
malapropism: [19] English owes the word malapropism to Mrs Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan’s play The Rivals 1775 whose grandiloquent impulses led her to use slightly (but ludicrously) the wrong word: amongst the most familiar of her errors are ‘contagious countries’ (for contiguous), ‘a supercilious knowledge in accounts’ (for superficial), and ‘as head-strong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile’. Sheridan based the name on malapropos ‘inappropriate’ [17], an anglicization of French mal à propos, literally ‘badly to the purpose’ (on mal, see MALIGN). => malign, propose
malapropism (n.)
1826, from Mrs. Malaprop, character in Sheridan's play "The Rivals" (1775), noted for her ridiculous misuse of large words (such as "contagious countries" for "contiguous countries"), her name coined from malapropos.