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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2014-03-14 07:17 am

agathokakological

agathokakological - adj., composed of both good and evil.


This seems to have been a nonce-word created by poet laureate Robert Southey (the deserved target of Byron's ire in The Vision of Judgement and the preface to Don Juan) from Greek roots agathos, good + kakos, bad + -logical, used as an adjectival ending. "For indeed upon the agathokakological globe there are opposite qualities always to be found" is the standard usage example, to the point I wonder if it's been used ever since.

---L.

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