Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Bad handwriting.
- noun Bad spelling.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Bad writing or spelling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Incorrect or bad writing or spelling.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Bad spelling.
- noun Bad handwriting.
- noun The act of exhibiting these traits
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun poor handwriting
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And Nicodemus has a disability, called cacography, that causes him to misspell texts simply by touching them.
“Spellwright” by Blake Charlton (Reviewed by Robert Thompson) Robert 2010
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My error was to think "cacography" might have been linked with cack-handedness, an apposite connection for some of us.
Ephems of BLB 2009
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If he owed to Smollett's Humphrey Clinker the form of his Up the Rhine, he has equalled Smollett in the narrative, in the variety of character, and in the admirable cacography of Martha Penny.
English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction Henry Coppee
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Wizard Apprentice Nicodemus had thought to be the prophesied Halcyon, but is afflicted with cacography, which stuns his growth as a magician.
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In "The Gold-Mines of Midian," p. 338, this name became, by virtue of the author's cacography, "Beoche."
The Land of Midian — Volume 1 Richard Francis Burton 1855
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And yet, upon careful examination we find a method, a system, in Underhill's orthography, or rather in his cacography.
Sabbath in Puritan New England Alice Morse Earle 1881
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Nicodemus Weal was once believed to be the prophesied savoir, but hopes and dreams were crushed when it was discovered that he suffers from cacography – the inability to spell correctly in magical languages.
Review: Spellwright by Blake Charlton Neth 2010
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Nicodemus Weal was once believed to be the prophesied savoir, but hopes and dreams were crushed when it was discovered that he suffers from cacography – the inability to spell correctly in magical languages.
Archive 2010-03-01 Neth 2010
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I love new words, one of my favourites was cacography and another, deltiology both of which apply to me.
Horripilation Glenda Larke 2008
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Artemus Ward, from Maine, wrote a flat Down-Eastish dialect that relied heavily on pointless ( "sed" for "said") or drastic ( "goak" for "joke") cacography and lacked Kelly's lyricism.
Pogo Leithauser, Brad 2002
devans00 commented on the word cacography
(kuh-KOG-ruh-fee)
1. Bad handwriting.
2. Incorrect spelling.
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.
"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.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
August 12, 2009
john commented on the word cacography
Shitty handwriting
March 8, 2010