[‘ Incorrect use of language.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌasᵻˈrɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌæsəˈrɑlədʒi/
Forms: 16 *acurologie*, 16 *acyrologie*, 16 18– *acyrology*.
Etymology: < post-classical Latin /acyrologia/ incorrect use of language (from 4th cent. in grammarians) < Hellenistic Greek /ἀκυρολογία/ < ancient Greek /ἀ-* a- prefix6 + /κῦρος* authority (see kyrine n.) + /-λογία/ -logy comb. form. Compare acyrological adj.
/rare/ after 17th cent.
Incorrect use of language.
[1550 R. Sherry /Treat. Schemes & Tropes/ sig. B8v, Acyrologia. Improprietas, when a worde nothynge at all in hys proper significacion is broughte into a sentence as a cloude.]
1577 H. Peacham /Garden of Eloquence/ sig Dj, This vice or fault is called, Acyrologia: which is an vnproper speaking in forme and sense.
1609 Bp. W. Barlow /Answer Catholike English-man/ 266 This Antilogie the Antapologer..would salue by a figure in Grammar called Acyrologie, and would scarre vp the wound by an improprietie of speech.
1645 J. Goodwin /Innocency & Truth Triumphing/ 92 Not to impose any tax upon an acyrologie.
1659 R. Smith in R. Chilswell /Let. R. Smith to H. Hammond conc. Creed/ (1684) 10 There is no Tautologie, or twice re-iteration of the self same thing, no acurologie or impropriety, contradiction or absurdity, no hysteron-proteron, no disorder in the position of it in the Creed.
1839 Lady Lytton /Cheveley/ (ed. 2) I. x. 221 His work..was meant to be..a condensation of all the ‘logics’ and all the ‘ology’s’; but, unfortunately, tautology and acyrology were the only ones thoroughly exemplified.
1844 Lady Lytton /Mem. Muscovite/ II. xi. 313, I wished..to bring my mother to a more specific declaration of her thoughts, freed from this species of acyrology which rendered them at least doubtful.
1994 /Internat. Jrnl. Classical Trad./ *1* 42 Óláfr’s adaptation of Donatus’s treatise is particularly significant in two of these cases, acyrology and amphibology.