Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SOL'E-CISM, n. [Gr. σολοικισμος, said to be derived from Soli, a people of Attica, who being transplanted to Cilicia, lost the purity of their language.]

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, from Cicero.
2. Any unfitness, absurdity or impropriety. – B. Jonson. Cesar, by dismissing his guards and retaining his power, committed a dangerous solecism in politics. – Middleton.