Barbarism

Pronunciation: bar'-bar-ism

Alternate Spelling: barbarismus

Definition

The use of nonstandard or foreign speech (see cacozelia); the use of a word awkwardly forced into a poem's meter; or unconventional pronunciation.

Examples

To you he appeals that knew him ab extrema pueritia, whose placet he accounts the plaudite of his pains, thinking his day-labor was not altogther lavish'd sine linea if there be anything of all in it that doth olere Atticum in your estimate.