Agathokakological

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Consisting of or characterized by a mixture of good and evil qualities or forces acting together
2. Made up of both virtuous and wicked components that coexist in a single entity or system
3. Blending benevolent and malevolent aspects in a way that creates a complex whole incorporating both morality and immorality

Etymology: The word is a deliberate coinage built from two Ancient Greek adjectives, "agathós" meaning "good" and "kakós" meaning "bad," joined to the suffix "-logical," which comes from "logikós," relating to reason or discourse. Its literal sense is therefore something like "relating to good and bad," with the blend of opposites doing the work. The reasoning behind the joining is clear from the parts themselves: the compound describes a mixed quality, a thing that is both good and bad at once. Because the word is a modern formation, its Greek pieces were not used together in antiquity. Greek speakers had "agathós" and "kakós" as separate words, and they could be paired in phrases such as "kalos kagathos," a classical ideal of moral and physical excellence, but "agathokakological" itself is a later construction assembled from those parts. Its interest lies less in a long chain of inheritance than in the way it packs an opposition into a single adjective.