Where did the word dystopia come from?

Answer 1

"Dystopia" is a modern word coined to contrast with "utopia" which itself is a modern word. Utopia, meaning "Nowhere" was coined by Thomas More, who cobbled it together from a Greek word for place and the negative prefix un-.

Dystopia is made from real Greek parts, but it is still a hybrid. The negative prefix dys- means "bad" or "ill" and it contrasts naturally with the positive prefix eu- meaning "well" or "good." And so if Utopia ( Nowhere) were really Eutopia (Good-where), then Dystopia (Bad-where) would make sense, at least, as an antithesis.

But it is not, so it does not. More knew his Greek well enough to have used Eutopia if he had meant it. So the word Dystopia is clever and useful, but its roots are in the ruins of antiquity, not in antiquity itself.