[L., a. Gr. κακόήθες ill habit, propensity, ‘itch,’ subst. use of neuter of κακοήθης ill-disposed, f. κακο- bad + (ἧθος) ἧθε- disposition, character. (The Gr. (and L.) plural was cacoēthē.)] a. An evil habit. b. An obstinate or malignant disease. c. An ‘itch’ for doing something, as in the insanabile scribendi cacoēthes (incurable passion for writing) of Juvenal.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., I. 657/1. Such is the malady and cacoethes of your pen, that it beginneth to bark, before it hath learned well to write.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 142. Gangrenes and those morimall vlcers called Cacoethe.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 139. This cacoethes, or ill custome, vsurpeth such a priuiledge, and incroacheth so vpon the good maners of men.
1713. Addison, Spect., No. 532, ¶ 1. Juvenal terms [this distemper] a Cacoethes, which is a hard word for a disease called in plain English, ‘The itch of writing.’ This Cacoethes is as epidemical as the small pox.
1726. Monro, Anat. (1741), 128. Unless the Patient labours under a general Cacoethes.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIV. 578. One half of it was cacoëthes of building, the other half cacoëthes of painting.
