• Asafum@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    kak·i·sto·cra·cy

    noun

    Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

    • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      On behalf of all the Welsh people I know would you have a problem with “cac” rather than the Dutch based (?) “kak” in this word?

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        “Kak” is from Greek. “Cac” is an alternate spelling coming from the same root via French, as in “cacophony” or

        • Klear@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I’ve recently started coming up with new words by changing eu- (meaning good) into caco-. You get some great ones like:

          • cacophoria
          • cacovangelium
          • cacogenics
          • cacology
          • cacophemism

          And my favourite, cacothanasia.

        • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          Interesting. I know “kak” from Afrikaans and “cachu” from Welsh. I’ve never seen the word definitively derived from Greek; I always believed the root was from PIE language. What do I know?

          • samus12345@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            I looked up the Dutch “kak” and that’s pretty funny. It means “bad” in Greek, but the Dutch meaning still works great - rule by the shittiest people.

            • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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              1 month ago

              Yeah - I assumed “shit (people)” was what we were going for; “k” doesn’t exist in Welsh so I asked for the alt spelling. Cacophony then translated as “shit sound” in my head - which again, kind of, works. Language is difficult.