Monday, July 09, 2007

New word for the day.



Kakistocracy

kak·is·toc·ra·cy (noun) Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Etymology: Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad.

Thanks to rae over at Naked Authors, I have learned a new word today. I think you can guess the context.

6 comments:

Phoebe Fay said...

Wonderful word.

I suspect I'll have plenty of opportunities to use it in conversation!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Are you sure it doesn't come from the childhood word for execrement in my neighborhood--ka ka?

Christa M. Miller said...

Patti, you beat me to the punch! Actually, I wonder whether "ka ka" came from the Greek word, as immigrant parents potty trained their children....

David Terrenoire said...

christa and patti,

That occurred to me, too. My father grew up in an immigrant-rich steel town and we kids were raised with various commands in Italian, French, German and Polish.

So ka-ka could be one more of those holdovers.

Beneath the Carolina Moon said...

Idiocracy comes to mind.

http://www.tonova.typepad.com/

March of the Morons

The world is a great place to be just now.

Anonymous said...

David,

Thanks for the shout out ;-)