|
Home
|
Jul 31, 2009
This week's themeWords made with combining forms This week's words stenotopic menticide eurybathic exogenous cacography This week's comments AWADmail 370 Next week's theme Eponymous pairs License Our Material Not just email, our daily words appear in various media, from newspapers to digital picture frames. You too can license our material for your newspaper, magazine, website, newsletter, LCD display, etc. See details. 
Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XMLA.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargcacography
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-KOG-ruh-fee)
MEANING:
noun:1. Bad handwriting. 2. Incorrect spelling. ETYMOLOGY:
From caco- (bad), from Greek kakos (bad) + -graphy (writing). Caco is
ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate) which
also gave us poppycock, cacophony, and cucking stool.
Opposites of today's word are
calligraphy (beautiful handwriting) and orthography (correct spelling).
A related word is cacology.
USAGE:
"Before I could think of quitting, my boss enlightened me on the virtues
of my handwriting, which was sheer cacography: 'Your writing is in direct
competition with the Harappan script that still had the hope of being
deciphered in the distant future.'"Vikram Kumar; Positions Very Vacant; The Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India); Apr 15, 2008. "They [Nerds Inc.] have taken advantage of cacography in a novel way. ... They registered more than 90 of the most probable misspellings of popular Web addresses afforded by the QWERTY keyboard, for processing by typo.net." Thomas W. Holcomb Jr.; Nerds Inc. Turns Typos Into On-Line Advertising; The New York Times; Jun 2, 1997. See more usage examples of cacography in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A woman whom we truly love is a religion. -Emile de Girardin, journalist and politician (1802-1881)
|
|
Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2024 Wordsmith