It may be a neologism, but it's a fun one. See the etymology of "mendacious".

Mendacracy does have a funny feel because there's an "a" where my brain wants to see an "o" instead. Most of the Greek prefixes had an "o" e.g., aristos. Can anyone think of a counter-example?

> Most of the Greek prefixes had an "o" e.g., aristos

Most Greek prefixes don't have an o. Instead, the o is used to connect the consonant at the end of the prefix to the consonant at the beginning of the root.

Where the prefix ends in a vowel, that vowel is used directly. Compare anabasis, catabasis, analyze, paralyze, metamorphosis, polygon, etc etc etc.

None of this works here, because "mendax" is not a Greek word. (Which doesn't help "mendacracy" - the epenthetic vowel in Latin is i.) The Greek word for liar is ψεύστης pseustes; you probably want pseustocracy ("rule by liars") or perhaps pseudocracy ("rule by lies", but seems more likely to be interpreted as "false rule").

It's not clear where the rest of the root of "mendax" is supposed to have gone in "mendacracy"; if you really wanted to jam it onto the -crat ending, you should end up with "mendacicrat".

Whoever you are, thank you for teaching me two new words today. I've never seen or heard of neologism or mendacious. Today is shaping up to be a good day.

:)

Not the person you’re replying to, but glad you inmutaplexed something new!

If you've seen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof you'd probably remember how frequently mendacity is used, too.

I did make it up, but Google Search indicates that I wasn't the first to come up with this combination. It seems pretty natural to substitute mendacious for meritorious.

Thanks for the clarification. It might be me, but quotes would have made that obvious.