I would have imagined Musil was thinking of the Greek kakistos (κάκιστος; worst). This is for example the root of the word Kakistocracy: https://en.m.wikipedia

I would have imagined Musil was thinking of the Greek kakistos (κάκιστος; worst). This is for example the root of the word Kakistocracy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy