kakistocracy

kak•i•stoc•ra•cy (kak-uh-STOK-ruh-see)  n

Definition:
government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens

Origin:
1829; coined on analogy of aristocracy from Gk. kakistos "worst," superlative of kakos "bad" (which is perhaps related to the general IE word for "defecate") + -cracy

Related:
Related Words: cacophony, aristocracy

Sentence Examples:
• This should be borne in mind by any one who, in the milder light of a later and better era, is disposed to carp at Schiller for caricaturing the nobility. He was not concerned with aristocracy in general, but with the particular kakistocracy that had disgraced his native land.  - The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller, Calvin Thomas

• The people lived in darkness and vassalage. They were lost in the grossness of beef and ale. They had no pamphleteering societies to demonstrate that reading and writing are better than-meat and drink; and they were utterly destitute of the blessings of those " schools for "all," the house of correction and the treadmill, wherein the autochthonal justice of an agrestic kakistocracy now castigates the heinous sins which were then committed with impunity, of treading on old footpaths, picking up dead wood, and moving on the face of the earth within the sound of the whirr of a partridge. - The Edinburgh review, Sydney Smith

• They deserve not to have their eyes opened until they find themselves under the harrow for ever; as they assuredly will find themselves, if they do not take warning while there is yet time. If they think the government of the Church too aristocratic, they will find in ten years that they have exchanged it for a kakistocracy. - The Quarterly review, William Gifford, Sir John Taylor Coleridge, John Gibson Lockhart


Sources: Wikipedia, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hagiarchy

hag•i•ar•chy (HAG-ee-ahr-kee, HEY-jee-)  n

Definition:
1.  government by saints, holy persons, or people in holy orders
2. a state so governed
3. (ecclesiastical term) an order of saints


Origin:
1820–30; from Gk hagi- from hagios "holy"   + -archy "rule," from L. -archia, from Gk. -arkhia, from arkhos "leader, chief, ruler," from arkhe "beginning, origin, first place"

Related:
Synonyms: hagiocracy
Related Words: hagiography

Sentence Examples:
• Nowhere was the crystallization of form and principle more pronounced than in religious life, which fastened upon the mother country a deadening weight that hampered all progress, and in the colonies, notably in the Philippines, virtually converted her government into a hagiarchy that had its face toward the past and either could not or would not move with the current of the times. -The Social Cancer, José  Rizal

• He became so renowned as a bringer of gifts that when the Reformation banished most of the saints he was allowed to stay behind, still working his annual miracle of generosity. The children kept him, in spite of the protests of reformers, as the darling of the old hagiarchy. In the United States he is the only saint, outside of the Roman communion, who survives at all. -The Nation, 1919

• Gerard did not know that he had rifled a shrine of the Panchpiryas. How should he? He did not know that such a sect existed. Had he heard of them he might perhaps have guessed from their name that they worshipped five saints, in which case he would not have taken one, leaving a diminished hagiarchy. -Living age, Eliakim Littell & Robert S. Littell

Sources: Free Dictionary

Word-E: A Word-A-Day