Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday September 5, 2012
cacology \ka-KOL-uh-jee\
, noun:
Defectively produced speech; socially unacceptable diction.
As to prose, I don't know Addison's from Johnson's; but I will try to mend my cacology.
-- Lord Byron, The Works and Letters of Lord Byron
Such cacology drives some people to distraction.
-- Linton Weeks, "R Grammar Gaffes Ruining the Language? Maybe Not", NPR
Cacology comes from the root caco- meaning "bad." This prefix occurs in loanwords from Greek. Similarly the suffix -logy is a combining form used in the names of sciences and bodies of knowledge.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for cacology
