Solecism

By Deane Barker

Definition: a nonstandard grammatical construct; a violation of ettiquite

The etymology traces back through multiple languages, all the way to the ancient Greeks. It’s said to have been coined because the Athenian Greeks thought the grammar of the people of the city Soli (sometimes “Soloi”) was poor and provincial, therefore they called grammatical and verbal mistakes “solecisms.”

Why I Looked It Up

From What's Bred in the Bone:

New Money wore dinner suits, which it called tuxedos, and smoked big cigars from which it removed the band before lighting up – an unthinkable solecism, for what if you should get a tobacco stain on your white glove.

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