English

Alternative forms

• cacoëthical

Adjective

cacoethical ‎(comparative more cacoethical, superlative most cacoethical)

1. Ill-conditioned, malignant; cacoethic.
   • 1654, Walter Charleton, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana: or A Fabrick of Science Natural, upon the Hypothesis of Atoms, Founded Epicurus, Repaired by Petrus Gassendus, Augmented Walter Charleton, Dr. in Medicine, and Physician to the Late Charles, Monarch of Great-Britain. The First Part. [Second Part never published], London: Printed by Tho[mas] Newcomb, for Thomas Heath, and are to be sold at his shop in Russel-street, neer the Piazza of Covent-Garden, OCLC 79823736; cited in Melvin Santer, Confronting Contagion: Our Evolving Understanding of Disease, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-935635-5, page 115:

     To lance and cleanſe this Cacoethical Ulcer, to the bottom, Conſider we, that the General Laws of Nature, whereby ſhe produceth All Effects, by the Action of one and Paſſion of another thing, […]

   • 1792, Francis Hopkinson, “A Remarkable Historical Fact, Mentioned in the Records of the Empire of China [...]”, in The Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings of Francis Hopkinson, Esq., volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by T. Dobson, at the Stone-House, No 41, Second Street, OCLC 62830328, page 320:

     In obedience to the royal command, we have attended to the cacoethical diſeaſe which had ſeized many perſons belonging to your imperial court; and we are most happy in informing your majeſty, that we have by proper applications reſtored all the patients that fell under our care, to compoſure, health and harmony, except the ſcribe, Quil-king-gum, who, unfortunately, expired under the operation neceſſary to his cure.

   • 1850, The People: Their Rights and Liberties, their Duties and their Interests, volume III, OCLC 183399988, page 88:

     Some passages are metaphorical, some metonymical; some are analogical, some parabolical, some are cacoethical, and some catachrestical; […]

   • 1921, Frank Moore Colby, The Margin of Hesitation, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, OCLC 1333261, page 132:

     […] by the Cirrhæan spikes, by the boiled head of my own baby served in Egyptian vinegar, I curse the whole insanable cacoëthical cohort of scriptitating—

   • 1996, Jonathan Bayliss, Gloucestertide, Rockport, Mass.: Protean Press, ISBN 978-0-9625780-2-1:

     Why a king might want to keep his cast is beyond the understanding of cacoethical billygoats.

   • 1997, Gina Apostol, Bibliolepsy: A Novel, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, ISBN 978-971542137-9:

     And when I broke out in laughter at this beached, stripped, cacoethical marlin, this pallid ichthyosaur, […]

Synonyms

• cacoethic

Derived terms

• cacoethically

Related terms

• cacoethes