Word of the Day for 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.

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