Sŏl'e-cism, n.
n. [Fr. solécisme, Pr. soloecisme, It. & Sp. solecismo, Gr. σολοικισμός, from σολοικίζειν, to speak or write incorrectly, from σόλοικος, speaking incorrectly, from the corruption of the Attic dialect among the Athenian colonists of Σόλοι in Cilicia.]
Sense 1. Impropriety in language, or a gross deviation from the rules of syntax; incongruity of words; want of correspondence or consistency.
A “barbarism” may be in one word; a solecism must be of more. Johnson.
Sense 2. Hence, any unfitness, absurdity, or impropriety.
My mind lately prompted me, that I should commit a great solecism, if, among the rest of my friends in England, I should leave you unsaluted. Howell.
Cæsar, by dismissing his guards and retaining his power, committed a dangerous solecism in politics. Middleton.
The idea of having committed the slightest solecism in politeness was agony to him. W. Scott.
Synonyms— Barbarism; impropriety; absurdity. — SOLECISM, BARBARISM. These terms have come down from the ancient rhetoricians. A barbarism is a word either foreign or uncongenial to a language, and not yet received into it. Solecism is derived from the Soli, a people of Attica, who, having colonized in Cilicia, lost the purity of their language. Hence the term solecism was applied to a violation of the laws of syntax; and at a subsequent period, to any expression involving an absurdity, or violation of the necessary laws of thought.