cacophony

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Ancient Greek κᾰκός (kăkós) Ancient Greek κακο- (kako-) Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́ Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ) Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek κᾰκόφωνος (kăkóphōnos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek κᾰκοφωνῐ́ᾱ (kăkophōnĭ́ā)bor. French cacophonieder. English cacophony From French cacophonie, from Ancient Greek κακοφωνία (kakophōnía), from κακός (kakós, “bad”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”), equivalent to caco- + -phony.

1. A mix of discordant sounds; dissonance.

   “1921-1922, H. P. Lovecraft, Herbert West: Reanimator, Not more unutterable could have been the chaos of hellish sound if the pit itself had opened to release the agony of the damned, for in one inconceivable cacophony was centered all the supernal terror and unnatural despair of animate nature.”

   “The Japanese got their attack in first. About ten minutes after passing the U.S. aircraft, they spotted Hornet (local weather patterns temporarily concealing Enterprise). Things had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those aboard the Enterprise, meaning that the end result was round about the same[…]”