n. The compulsion or ability to see random or non-cartographic patterns as maps; an example of such a pattern.
2013
"Not sure if you’re still collecting cartocacoethes", says James Nicholls (Yes, James!), "but I stumbled across this one of the Hawai’ian Islands at the bus stop opposite my apartment some time back"….
Sometimes also called cartocacoethes, a Greek word describing the ability to see maps in non-cartographic patterns (or perhaps, in particularly serious cases, the inability not to see them). It is a specific form of pareidolia, also Greek, for finding meaning in patterns where there isn’t any.
Sometimes also called cartocacoethes, a Greek word describing the ability to see maps in non-cartographic patterns (or perhaps, in particularly serious cases, the inability not to see them). It is a specific form of pareidolia, also Greek, for finding meaning in patterns where there isn’t any.
2011
For a long time I blamed writers like John Bunyan and Dante for this allegorical form cartacacoethes. Desperate to extract a storyline from a possibly dreary and didactic subject—the struggle to live a life worthy of Heaven—they seized on a quest narrative, a "pilgrim's progress," and mapmakers were quick to follow suit.
2008 (earliest)
Indeed, many prehistoric "maps" may be the result of cartocacoethes — a mania, uncontrollable urge, compulsion or itch to see maps everywhere.
This mouthful of a word combines the prefix carto-, "maps" (as in cartographer and cartography), and the word cacoethes, "an itch or compulsion." The variant cartacacoethes looks like an error, since the prefix carta- doesn't mean anything. We can likely attribute the fairly wide dispersion of this error to Ken Jennings, who used it in his otherwise-awesome book Maphead (see the second citation).