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Calliphony

Updated Jan 8 2024

Calliphony is the as-of-yet uncoined and obviously absent opposite of the well-known adjective cacophony (which is currently notably lacking in any other accurately or articulately quotable antithesis).1

Roots come from the Greek words calli and caco, meaning ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ when used to preface nouns.

First encountered in The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps:

“But calliphony was as inseparable from the captain’s voice as blood from a living heart, and he could do nothing, try as he might, to make any utterance of his less than the loveliest you’d heard, or would ever hear, so long as you lived.”


  1. Cited on Urban Dictionary, of all places ↩︎