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• kakistocracy •

Pronunciation: kæ-ki-stah-crê-si • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: Government by the worst, least competent citizens

Notes: This word may strike some of you as irrelevant: all governments at some point in time seem to be run by the least competent. However, this is just to let you know that there is a word for it. The adjective is kakistocratic(al), and the adverb, as we might expect, is kakistocratically. A participant in a kakistocracy is a kakistocrat. The Ks are usually rendered in English as Cs, as in cacodemon and cacography, so all these words are relatives.

In Play: Today we have a word that offers ample opportunity for play. "The kakistocracy has put this country where it is." Maybe your coconversationalist will think you said "aristocracy". Don't forget the related words: "Jerry Mander is a kakistocrat in a class all his own; entering politics was an economic decision for him."

Word History: Today's Good Word has probably been around since the 17th century. We have a published instance of the adjective Kakistocraticall [sic] in 1641. It was coined as the opposite of aristocracy, which is made up of Greek aristos "best" + cratia "rule". Today's word was coined by combining kakistos "worst" + cratia "rule". Kakistos is the superlative of kakos "bad", which was discussed in both the Good Words beginning on caco- mentioned above. Cratia comes from kratos "strength, power, rule", a word that goes back to Proto-Indo-European kar- "hard" plus a suffix -t. By the time this formation had reached English, via its parental Germanic languages, it still had the original PIE meaning: hard. (Dr. Goodword came across this word while updating the Lexiteria's English word frequency list. Gratitude today is optional.)

I'd be less than true to this forum if I did not say
I was pleased, Doc, for your work on this word.
I needed such a word.

The definition immediately brought to mind President Dwayne Camacho from the aptly-named dystopian train-wreck of a movie Idiocracy, although on reflection it's entirely possible that Camacho wasn't the worst. He might even have been less stupid than those who put him in office.

I didn't see it BTW; my impression comes from the IMdb and Wikipedia descriptions, and the fact that it got NO promotion.

Somehow the current situation in DC fits as well.

I found out about Idiocracy thru Wikipedia. I was looking at an article about fictional US presidents, and I saw a listing for a movie whose US president was named Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Hector Camacho. I had to find out about a movie with a character saddled with a handle like that, no matter how stupid it might turn out to be. Turns out it's set in a future where stupidity and consumerism run rampant...

The future is now, and it's getting worse with each
month.

Great word. I would have guessed its etymology links to the Greek kakos, which has a fetid legacy.

Now I have a suggestion for naming a new dysfunctional country, since many of the existing dysfunctional countries seem to be sliding into dissolution: "Kakistan."

I'll piggy-back on your suggestion.
Perhaps we need a word for the aid that we are
giving some of these "Kakistans' ,have a similar
root. We give them humvees, et. al., they desert
them, ISIS confiscates them. What a waste of
our treasure.