Unintentional misuse of a word

• PARTIAL POST
• The unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar
• Unintentional confusion of one word with another (by someone in a Sheridan play?)
• The French forward is wearing old lady's slip

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ In spite of his inane malapropisms, he can talk circles around everyone else in the book. ▪ This is really a kind of malapropism .

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar [syn: malaprop ]

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar sounding one. 2 (context countable English) An instance of this; malaprop.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
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 .

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
A malapropism (also called a malaprop or Dogberryism ) is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance . An example is the statement by baseball player Yogi Berra , " Texas has ...