• samus12345@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    “Kak” is from Greek. “Cac” is an alternate spelling coming from the same root via French, as in “cacophony” or

    • Klear@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      I’ve recently started coming up with new words by changing eu- (meaning good) into caco-. You get some great ones like:

      • cacophoria
      • cacovangelium
      • cacogenics
      • cacology
      • cacophemism

      And my favourite, cacothanasia.

    • Noel_Skum
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      Interesting. I know “kak” from Afrikaans and “cachu” from Welsh. I’ve never seen the word definitively derived from Greek; I always believed the root was from PIE language. What do I know?

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        I looked up the Dutch “kak” and that’s pretty funny. It means “bad” in Greek, but the Dutch meaning still works great - rule by the shittiest people.

        • Noel_Skum
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 month ago

          Yeah - I assumed “shit (people)” was what we were going for; “k” doesn’t exist in Welsh so I asked for the alt spelling. Cacophony then translated as “shit sound” in my head - which again, kind of, works. Language is difficult.