κακοφωνία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ka.ko.pʰɔː.ní.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ka.ko.ɸoˈni.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ka.ko.foˈni.a/^[1]

Forms

κᾰκοφωνῐ́ᾱ (kakophōníā) f (genitive κᾰκοφωνῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from κακόφωνος (kakóphōnos, “ill-sounding”) with the suffix -ία (-íā); the adjective is formed from κακός (kakós, “bad”) and φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philodemus uses it as the opposite of εὐφωνία (euphōnía, “pleasant sound”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Strabo uses it for the ill sound of a place name, and the treatise On Style ascribed to Demetrius and Apollonius Dyscolus for cacophony in speech.^[2] Galen distinguishes it from δυσφωνία (dusphōnía, “difficulty in speaking”).^[2]

Modern Greek κακοφωνία (kakofonía) is a learned word for a disharmony of sounds, such as many consonants together in a word, and Russian какофония comes from it.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Philodemus opposes it to euphony.^[2]
• 1st century BC – 1st century AD – Strabo uses it of a place name.^[2]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus and Galen use it.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ill sound, cacophony, as opposed to euphony.^[2][1]

Related words

• κακός (kakós)
• φωνή (phōnḗ)
• εὐφωνία (euphōnía)
• English cacophony

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki