Here are some of the original malapropisms from the lady herself: Mrs. Malapropin Richard Sheridan’s play The Rivals (1775).
- “…promise to forget this fellow – to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.”
[obliterate]
- “O, he will dissolve my mystery!”
[resolve]
- “He is the very pine-apple of politeness!”
[pinnacle]
- “I have since laid Sir Anthony’s preposition before her;”
[proposition]
- “Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree.”
[hysterics]
- “I hope you will represent her to the captain as an object not altogether illegible.”
[eligible]
- “…she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying.”
[comprehend]
- “…she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile.”
[alligator]
- “I am sorry to say, Sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small.”
[influence]