kakistocrat

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -crat).

Noun

kakistocrat (plural kakistocrats)

  1. A very ill-qualified ruler; a member of a kakistocracy.
    • 2009 July 12, William Safire, “Newswords”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 11 February 2021:
      On the other hand, should the kakistocrats in Iran stick with the name of expediency to describe their power brokers?
    • 2024 November 17, Howie Klein, “A Plurality Of American Voters Have Embraced Kakistocracy As Their Preferred Form Of Governance”, in DownWithTyranny‎[2], archived from the original on 18 November 2024:
      An obvious characteristic of a kakistocrat is inserting unqualified loyalists into positions of power. Nepotism and kakistocracy go hand-in-hand.

Translations

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