The Word of the Day for October 26 is:
kakistocracy \kak-uh-STAH-kruh-see\ (noun)
: government by the worst people
Example sentence:
The free election won't guarantee an end to kakistocracy,
because none of the candidates have any more integrity than the
corrupt dictator currently in power.
Did you know?
A reader of _Time_ magazine was once so surprised to find
this rare and unusual word in the pages of that publication
that he decided the occasion warranted a letter to the editor.
"Where in the name of Semanticus, did your writer come up with
that word 'kakistocracy,'" he wrote in a letter dated February
6, 1956. "Is it a government of parrots?" (A "kaka" is a New
Zealand parrot.) Good guess, but "kakistocracy" actually
originated as a combination of the Greek "kakistos" (superlative
of "kakos," which means "bad") and the English suffix "-cracy,"
meaning "form of government."
NOTE:
Today's Word of the Day is taken from _Webster's Third New
International Dictionary, Unabridged_. You can find this word
and many other uncommon words on our new site. Merriam-Webster
Unabridged: http://www.Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com
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