Malaprop

Malaprop, MRS, a character in Sheridan's Rivals, whose remarks are not so much out of place or mal-à-propos, as ingeniously perverse in 'derangement of epitaphs'—i.e. in confounding and misapplying words somewhat similar in sound or spelling—a 'Derbyshire putrefaction,' 'a barbarous Vandylke,' 'an allegory on the banks of the Nile.'