Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Kakistocracy
/ˌkækɪˈstɒkrəsi/noun
Government by the least qualified or most unscrupulous people available.
The Greek roots
κάκιστος
kákistos
worst
κράτος
krátos
power, rule
Literally: “rule by the worst”
The story of the word
κάκιστος is the superlative of κακός, bad, so the word is not rule by bad people but rule by the very worst, which is a stronger claim than most who reach for it intend. Thomas Love Peacock used it in 1829 as the deliberate opposite of aristocracy, rule by the best. It surfaces in English roughly once a generation, always in the same tone.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English coinage
- First recorded
- 1829
Same family
cacophonycacographyaristocracydemocracy
In a sentence
The editorial called the appointments a kakistocracy and then listed them one by one.