|
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of esteeming or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by said means. Its pronunciation may vary from \'flä-chE-'nau-chE-ni-'hi-lE-'pi-lE-fI-'ca-shun\ [1] (http://www.m-w.com/pronsymbols.htm) to "FLOK-sih-noh-see-NEE-hee-lee-PEE-lih-fih-KAY-shun" or "FLA-sih-NAH-see-nə-hill-lə-pill-lə-fih-kay-shun".
It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which presents it "as enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, and added verb endings:
- floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't care"; more literally "I don't give a wisp of wool")
- naucum, -i a trifle
- nihilum, -i nothing; something valueless
- pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant
In fact, as given in the first edition of the OED, the word includes four sets of quotation marks and is presented thus:
- "Flocci" "nauci" "nihili" "pili" fication
It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (a thing of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked the more popular present form, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant."
Quotations
- Sir Walter Scott (Journal, March 8, 1826, with 'pauci' as the second element rather than 'nauci'):
- [... I] have arrived at a flocci-pauci-nihili-pili-fication of money, and I thank Shenstone for inventing that long word.
- "Do you think I may be too quick to find fault with things and people, Zippy?"
- "Yeh."
- "Th' 'floccinaucinihilipilification' process."
- "Th' what?"
- "Floccinaucinihilipilification!! It means 'the estimation of something as valueless'!"
- "You've been randomly reading th' dictionary, haven't you?"
- "Yes. That and my natural tendency toward antifloccinaucinihilipilification!!"
- "I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT." (Helms claims he learned the word from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan)
- "But if you -- as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification going on here."
- "Sharpie darling, you are a floccinaucinihilipilificatrix."
- "Is that a compliment?"
- "Certainly! Means you're so sharp you spot the slightest flaw."
- I kept quiet. It was possible that Zebadiah meant it as a compliment. Just barely- "Maybe I'd better check it in a dictionary."
- "By all means, dear-after you are off watch." (I dismissed the matter. Merriam Microfilm was all we had aboard and Aunt Hilda would not find that word in anything less than the O.E.D.)
- Bob Black, in "A Study In Floccinaucinihilipilification"[2] (http://www.primitivism.com/balash.htm)
- slams anarchists Murray Bookchin and Timothy Balash
|
