cacophony

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈkɒfəni/ (UK); /kəˈkɑfəni/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κακοφωνία (kakophōnía),^[2][3][4] probably by way of French cacophonie,^[2][3][4] from kakóphōnos “ill-sounding”,^[2][3][4] from kakós “bad” and phōnḗ “sound, voice”.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of sounding harsh; the use of harsh-sounding words or phrases (1656), the opposite of euphony.^[5][3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of style for harsh-sounding language.^[5][6] From 1789 it was applied to discordant sounds in music,^[4][5] and it now most often means any jarring mixture of noises.^[2][7][1]

Timeline

• 1587 – French cacophonie.^[3]
• 1656 – harsh sound in words or phrases.^[5][3][6]
• before 1789 – discord in music.^[5][4]
• 1797 – cacophonous.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Harsh, jarring sound; dissonance.
2. A discordant, meaningless mixture of sounds.
3. The use of harsh-sounding words in writing, as for poetic effect.

Word family

• cacophonous

Related words

• dissonance
• harmony
• euphony
• symphony
• phonetic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House