different between malapropism vs mondegreen

English

Etymology

From the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan + -ism. As dramatic characters in English comic plays of this time often had allusive names, it is likely that Sheridan fashioned the name from malapropos (“inappropriate”). Mrs. Malaprop is perhaps the best-known example of a familiar comedic character archetype who unintentionally substitutes inappropriate but like-sounding words that take on a ludicrous meaning when used incorrectly.

The name Mrs. Malaprop itself comes from French mal à propos which means improperly, amiss, or ill-timed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?mæl?p??p?z?m/
• (US) enPR: m?l??-prä-p?z-?m, IPA^(key): /?mæl?p???p?z?m/

Noun

malapropism (countable and uncountable, plural malapropisms)

1. (uncountable) The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.

   The script employed malapropism to great effect.

2. (countable) An instance of this; malaprop.

   The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language.

   The humor comes from all the malapropisms.

Synonyms

• (instance of malapropism): malaprop, catachresis

Translations

See also

• Examples of malapropisms
• eggcorn
• folk etymology
• mondegreen
• spoonerism

English

Etymology

Coined by American author and editor Sylvia Wright in 1954 in Harper's Magazine from a mishearing of a line in the Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl O' Moray: “They have slain the Earl O' Moray, / And laid him on the green” (misheard as “Lady Mondegreen”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?nd??gr?n
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?nd???i?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?nd???i?n/

Noun

mondegreen (plural mondegreens)

1. A form of error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase. [from 1954]

   Synonym: mishearing

   • 2012, Gary Rosen, Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein, Oxford University Press (?ISBN)

     The title lyric, the only part of the original Yiddish preserved by Cahn, was a mondegreen waiting to happen—“My Mere Bits of Shame” and “My Beer, Mr. Shane” were among the earliest recorded mishearings—but the language barrier didn't […]

2. (rare) A misunderstanding of a written or spoken phrase as a result of multiple definitions.

Translations

See also

• eggcorn
• folk etymology
• malapropism
• Hobson-Jobson

Further reading

• mondegreen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References