# Word for this concept

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 28, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936 "2008-12-28T06:47:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/1 "2008-12-28T06:47:21Z")

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Complete brain fart here.

What’s the word that describes one who uses the wrong words in a sentence? (Ronnie Barker, in his capacity as one half of The Two Ronnies, did a few hillarious skits about this very thing as “The chairman for the Society of Pispronounciation.”)

This should be easy – but for some reason my brain is stuck on “misanthrope” and that’s not at all what I’m after, and the Googles do nothing it seems. I know it’s a “mis” word but it’s just not sifting to the top of my brain.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/2 "2008-12-28T06:49:28Z")

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Malapropism?

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**Author:** ![wunderkammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@wunderkammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wunderkammer)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/3 "2008-12-28T06:49:47Z")

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Malapropism. You’re right about the “M” thing, at least.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/4 "2008-12-28T06:57:46Z")

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Doh! Yes, that’s the one I was looking for. Malapropism. Well, it had a negative prefix, at least, so I was on the right track. 🙂

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/5 "2008-12-28T11:53:51Z")

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> [@Mindfield](#):
>
> for some reason my brain is stuck on “misanthrope” and that’s not at all what I’m after, and the Googles do nothing it seems. I know it’s a “mis” word but it’s just not sifting to the top of my brain.

This phenomenon (not being able to remember a word, just another word vaguely like it) should be called mismalapropism! 🙂

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-for-this-concept/478936/6 "2008-12-28T13:37:26Z")

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> [@glee](#):
>
> This phenomenon (not being able to remember a word, just another word vaguely like it) should be called mismalapropism! 🙂

Call me Mismael…