cacophony
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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
- Harsh, jarring sound; dissonance.
- A discordant, meaningless mixture of sounds.
- The use of harsh-sounding words in writing, as for poetic effect.
Word family
- cacophonous
Related words
- dissonance
- harmony
- euphony
- symphony
- phonetic
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
- ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House