Cacographies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A form of written expression marked by incorrect spelling and unsightly handwriting leading to confusion in understanding
2. An example of textual output where spelling errors and poor penmanship hinder effective communication
3. The characteristic of having poorly formed letters or frequent spelling mistakes that impair clarity

Etymology: "Cacographies" is the plural of "cacography," a word built from two Greek elements: "kakos," meaning bad or ugly, and "-graphia," meaning writing, the same root that gives us "graphy" in words like "calligraphy" and "geography." So the word literally describes bad writing, with the Greek "kakos" supplying the sense of ugliness or wrongness and the suffix supplying the act of writing. The "caco-" prefix is a useful one to recognise. It appears in other English formations such as "cacophony," meaning harsh or discordant sound, where "kakos" is joined to "phone," or voice. A cacography is therefore the written counterpart of a cacophony: a page that offends the eye and muddles the meaning in the same way a discordant noise offends the ear.