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[SOL-i-siz'-ahm, SOE-li-siz'-ahm] 
1. a nonstandard or ungrammatical word construction or phrase, as 'unvisible', 'they was', and 'mom, she stoled the cookies!'
2. a tactless act; a breach of etiquette
3. any impropriety, mistake, or incongruity: "My role as an advisor was to help iron out each solecism in the student's position until he had one coherent, logical message to convey."
Origin:
From the city of Soli, in Cilicia, where an Athenian colony settled, and eventually forgot the pure form of their native language. In Action:
"Christie Whitman, the moderate Republican who is governor of New Jersey, has been chosen by President-elect Bush to head the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington . . . But first Ms. Whitman needs to get some complicated facts straight. The threat to the protective ozone layer in the high stratosphere from chlorofluorocarbons is a serious problem. The threat of global warming from the build-up of carbon dioxide may also be a serious problem. The two phenomena have almost no connection with each other. To confuse them is an environmental solecism as serious as for a politician to mistake Newark and New York. Ms. Whitman was apparently confusing the two phenomena in answering a question at a press conference this week."
Nicholas Wade. New York Times, The Week in Science: Complicated Facts (December 26, 2000). | |
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