DOUG'S WORD OF THE WEEK

cacography / kuh-KOG-ruh-fee / noun: 1. Bad handwriting. 2. Incorrect spelling.

Notes & Etymology: From caco- (bad), from Greek kakos (bad) + -graphy (writing). Caco is ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate) which also gave us poppycock, cacophony, and cucking stool.

Usage: “They [Nerds Inc.] have taken advantage of cacography in a novel way. ... They registered more than 90 of the most probable misspellings of popular Web addresses afforded by the QWERTY keyboard, for processing by typo.net."
Thomas W. Holcomb Jr.; Nerds Inc. Turns Typos Into On-Line Advertising; The New York Times; Jun 2, 1997.