The Oxford English Dictionary declares "agathokakological" the Word of the Day.
Origin: A borrowing from Greek, combined with a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element.... Etymology: < ancient Greek ἀγαθός good (see agathism n.) + κακός bad (see caco- comb. form) + -logical comb. form.
It means "Composed of both good and evil."
1834 R. Southey Doctor II. 170 For indeed upon the agathokakological globe there are opposite qualities always to be found.
It's a rare word, though it's obviously useful, so please try to use it!
Posts
28 comments:
I think the entire internet era has been an agathokakological event for humankind. Just sayin.
’…so please try to use it!’
The lady who writes this blog asked us to use agathokakological in the comments.
How’d I do?
Maybe we'd be better off if we thought of things as neither good nor bad but agathokakological.
Better off and worse off.
The Byrde family from “Ozark” is definitely agathokaological.
nah. it's shorter to say "Composed of both good and evil."
There was only one person born who wasn’t agathokakological and they killed him.
i WANT to use agathokakological in a sentence; but for every reason to do so, i find one not to.
It is not [man's] fault. Through the ages he had believed (eyelids fluttering under the mignonettes of modesty) that he was compounded only of good and a minimal amount of evil. Sharply I showed him, by laying bare in broad daylight his heart and life's weave, that on the contrary, he is compounded only of evil and a minimal amount of good which the legislators have difficulty managing to preserve.
- Lautreamont
Only Agatha I’ve ever heard of had the last name Christie.
Composed of both good and evil.
Obama taught us that word is “nuanced”.
Maybe instead of believing in God and that bourgeoisie notion of good and evil used to control punters with guilt, recognize that the Universe is Indifferent. Because that thought is terrifying. But more guns ammo and pitbulls.
Seems easier to say "composed of both good and evil"
A word that difficult to spell and pronounce will never catch on. I have enough trouble with Manichean.....I suppose the cast of murder suspects at English country estates in Agatha Christie books can be described as agathokalogical, especially if the murder weapon was a poisoned biscuit.
The problem is, of course, the proper conception of "evil."
To be "composed" of "evil" is to say that evil is a substance. A right understanding, of course, is that evil is not a substance that has independent existence per se, but is the absence or distortion of a substance, namely, good. Just like darkness is itself not a thing, but is the absence of light.
Thus, "composed of both good and evil" is an absurdity. Instead, there is "composed of good, but diminished by evil."
I stopped expanding my vocabulary after oligodendroglia.
Kevin- you're on a roll.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was an extremely Agathokakological tree.
Each of us are agathokakological.
But the word has nothing to do with mystery novels?
Here's an agathokakological quote from Solzhenitsyn:
“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Agathokakological... there, I typed it. Happy?
Though this mouthful (Try blending it smoothly into speech.) can certainly scratch the sesquipedalian itch, it isn't exactly insightful, is it? One needn't tax one's imagination too much to find a situation fit for its application. (Keep in mind that κακός (kakos) doesn't mean cosmic evil as the word applies in many religions, it can mean bad or just unpleasant. For example, we have the word cacophony, an unpleasant noise.) On my desk, at this moment there is a cup of tea, just Lipton's, no Earl Grey or green oolong. And I think, how good is the teacup, else how could I drink my tea? But If I should break that china cup, the shards could cut me enough to bleed me out dead as a hammer, and thereby I discover the teacup's agathokakological character.
Consider the citation given in the OED. For indeed upon the agathokakological globe there are opposite qualities always to be found. Not what I'd call a perspicacious observation, more like a Marvel super-villain talking down to a minion.
agathokakological is only useful for communicating with people who know what agathokakological means, or impressing people with sesquipedaianism.
Not Wordle-friendly...
A good collegiate 'I'm sad but we must be brave' break-up word.
Better off and worse off.
Better off because the usual suspects will avoid the word because of their risibly mangled attempts to spell or pronounce agathokakological. And worse off for the same reason.
This subject reminds me of another, personal names in classical antiquity. We usually don't consider the literal meaning of names, but sometimes they are revealing. We find the word ἀγαθός in Agathocles, the notorious tyrant of Syracuse of whom Machiavelli wrote in The Prince as an example of an autocrat who rose to power by criminality, not unlike our Resident of the United States. The name means good boy, which must have sparked rueful grins on Syracusian faces. Then there's Heracles (Rome's Hercules) whose name means Hera's boy. As we know the fabled strongman was nothing of the kind. Heracles was the bastard son of Zeus begotten on the mortal woman Alcmene, who spent his mortal existence countering Hera's wrath. Think about other famous ancient names and their ironies. Here's another, what famously bald Roman dictator's name means hairy?
One of the few uses that isn't accompanied by a definition:
2020, Confluence of AI, Machine, and Deep Learning in Cyber Forensics, Misra, Sanjay, Arumugam, Chamundeswari, Jaganathan, Suresh, page 194:
Artificial Intelligence is predicted to become a staple by the end of 2020 in nearly all walks of life despite being agathokakological in nature.
Yinyang
in Eastern thought, the two complementary forces that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption. It is present in even numbers, in valleys and streams, and is represented by the tiger, the colour orange, and a broken line. Yang is conceived of as heaven, maleness, light, activity, and penetration. It is present in odd numbers, in mountains, and is represented by the dragon, the colour azure, and an unbroken line. The two are both said to proceed from the Great Ultimate (taiji), their interplay on one another (as one increases the other decreases) being a description of the actual process of the universe and all that is in it. In harmony, the two are depicted as the light and dark halves of a circle.
- britannica.com
Yingyang progresses as an agathokakological construct when either the feminine or masculine are normalized as toxic qualities or predisposed to choose wicked solutions.
Wave particle duality
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Post a Comment