cacoepy

American  

[kuh-koh-uh-pee] / kəˈkoʊ ə pi /

Rarely cacoëpy

noun

cacoepies plural

1. incorrect pronunciation or an instance of this; mispronunciation (opposed to orthoepy).

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cacoepy British  

/ kəˌkəʊɪˈpɪstɪk, kəˈkəʊɪpɪ /

noun

1. bad or mistaken pronunciation

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Other Word Forms

• cacoepist
  noun
• cacoepistic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of cacoepy

First recorded in 1840–45; from Greek kakoépeia “faulty language,” equivalent to kakós “bad” + epe- (stem of épos “song, word”) + -ia noun suffix; see origin at caco- , -y ³

Explanation

Cacoepy is the mispronunciation of a word. Your little cousin saying "brefix" instead of "breakfast" is a cute example of cacoepy — but he'll probably grow out of it by the time he's in middle school. Cacoepy comes from the Greek kakos, meaning "bad," and epos, meaning "word." While it sounds like it might refer to swearing, it specifically means pronouncing a word in a way that's considered incorrect or nonstandard. Because language is fluid, cacoepy can be relative to a regional dialect; however, the term is most often used when a pronunciation ignores the word's pronunciation in any dialect. The opposite of cacoepy is orthoepy, the expected or accepted pronunciations of words.