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• cacoëthes
  cacoëthes

  noun

  an irresistible urge; mania.
• cacoethes
  cacoethes

  noun

  an uncontrollable urge or desire, esp for something harmful; mania

cacoëthes

American  

[kak-oh-ee-theez] / ˌkæk oʊˈi θiz /

Or cacoethes

noun

1. an irresistible urge; mania.

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cacoethes British  

/ ˌkækəʊˈiːθiːz /

noun

1. an uncontrollable urge or desire, esp for something harmful; mania

   a cacoethes for smoking

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Other Word Forms

• cacoethic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of cacoëthes

First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin, from Greek kakóēthes, neuter (used as noun) of kakoḗthēs “malignant,” literally, “of bad character”; see caco-, ethos

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cacoëthes cacoethes

His father designed him for the law, and he studied the institutes at the Philadelphia Law Academy, but like Schumann, he was spoiled for briefs by the stronger pull of music and the cacoëthes scribendi.

From A Book of Prefaces by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

There were many things the kindly veteran would smooth over in order not to wound sensitive minds bitten with the cacoëthes scribendi.

From Victor Hugo: His Life and Works by G. Barnett Smith

It is a mode of paralysis—a cacoëthes tacendi—the one form that malady takes in me.

From Selected Prose of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde

The cacoëthes scribendi is a disease common, not to imaginative, but to imitative, minds.

From Methods of Authors by Hugo Erichsen

For the Madigans' Aunt Anne was afflicted with cacoëthes scribendi, and was never so happy as when there was a letter to be written—except when she was actually writing it.

From The Madigans by Orson Lowell

Most of us suffer in some degree From cacoethes loquendi, Yet some who deplore it at length seem to be Afflicted with ditto scribendi.

From Time Magazine Archive

If, however, I may mention my own small experience of this matter, literary talent, or at all events authorship, is hereditary, especially in these days of that general epidemic, the "cacoethes scribendi."

From My Life as an Author by Martin Farquhar Tupper

We have a considerable cacoethes of speech-making, among the orators being Professor Blackie of Edinburgh, whose quaint comicalities convulse his audience.

From Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places by Archibald Forbes

But in his old age he had fallen a prey to the cacoethes scribendi; he insisted upon having his say about everything, yet his stock of ideas had long since run out.

From The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Calvin Thomas

Casting my eyes round the circle, I was struck with the singular prevalence of the cacoethes scribendi, among so many men of different educations, antecedents, and pursuits.

From Recollections of Europe by James Fenimore Cooper