Floccinaucinihilipilification
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of esteeming or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by said means.
It is pronounced \'flä-chE-'nau-chE-ni-'hi-lE-'pi-lE-fI-'ca-shun\. (Pronunciation Symbols)
It may also be pronounced "FLOK-sih-noh-see-NEE-hee-lee-PEE-lih-fih-KAY-shun".
It is the longest non-technical word in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), where it dates back to 1741. The first use the OED gives is from the poet William Shenstone in 1741: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
It is said to have been made up by some Eton College students from four words meaning 'nothing' or 'worthless', presented in "a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar", as for example:
- flocci - Latin, "a sheep's fleece or piece of wool", as in flocci non facio - "I don't care" (literally "I couldn't give a sheep's fleece)
- nauci - Latin, "of the trifle"
- nihil - Latin, "nothing"
- pili - Latin, "the hairs", by implication small and insignificant
In fact, as given in 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, trifling") and floccinaucity ("thing of small importance").
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"[1]
- slams anarchists Murray Bookchin and Timothy Balash
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