Which archaic word refers to someone's poor handwriting?

Cacography is an archaic English word that means 'bad penmanship'. It is the opposite of the word 'calligraphy', which stems from the Greek words for 'beautiful writing'. Today, cacography is a form of comic writing usually used to demonstrate an illiterate person.

The use of cacography is similar to 'eye dialect' coined by George Philip Krapp (1872-1934) to refer to the literary technique used by writers to inflect someone's accent. Charles Dickens (1812-1870), for example, used spellings such as 'wos' (was) and 'sed' (said) to indicate the speaker was an uneducated Londoner.

In the 21st century, deliberate use of cacography often appears in internet 'memes' to indirectly voice a cute or funny animal or make the text appear to be written by a child. Examples include "I can has cheezburger?" and "I are serious cat". Many well-known brands also use a modern version of cacography, such as 'Froot Loops' and 'Krispy Kreme'.

Cacography also refers to the style (or lack of) writing, especially those that are almost illegible. Doctors, for example, are often the butt of jokes about poor handwriting. There have been many people throughout history who, despite their intelligence or celebrity status, had remarkably bad handwriting. Included amongst these ranks are Albert Einstein (1878-1955), Mohammad Ali (1942-2016) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).