lapsus linguae

alternative lapsus linguæ

1. formalAn inadvertent remark; a slip of the tongue.

   1898, Pisistratus Caxton, My Novel, or Varieties in English Life, Volume I, George Routledge & sons, page 395, “The devil they do, ma’am!” bolted out Richard, gruffly ; and then, ashamed of his lapsus linguæ, screwed up his lips firmly, and glared at the company with an eye of indignant fire.

   3 more examples

   a1789, Rev. Mr. Bramston, "The Art of Politics, in Imitation of Horace’s Art of Poetry", Epistle X in John Bell (ed.), Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry, Volume V, John Bell (1789), page 112, Is there a man on earth so perfect found, / Who ne’er mistook a word in sense or sound ? / Not blund’ring, but persisting is the fault ; / No mortal sin is lapsus linguae thought : / Clerks may mistake ; considering who ’tis from, / I pardon little slips in Cler. Dom. Com.

   ... a poor woman who owed one thousand piastres—about £30—rushed and seized hold of the coffin, but instead of saying, "God bless the Bey," she, by an unfortunate lapsus linguæ, exclaimed, "God do not bless the King," which slip is quite natural in the Arabic expression.

   1850, Moses Margoliouth, A pilgrimage to the land of my fathers

   2006, Daniele Chatelain and George Slusser (trs.), Honoré de Balzac (author), The Centenarian: Or, the Two Beringhelds, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 229, “As he said this, you can imagine our surprise; we thought the man must be out of his head, or that it was a lapsus linguae: yet the strength of his convictions caused us to persist in our first opinion. […]”