Vocabulary
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:41 pm
I receive a daily newsletter from Wordsmith.com. Last week, this was a featured word. I plan on adding it to my own vocabulary as soon as I can learn to pronounce it smoothly.... 
floccinaucinihilipilification
(FLOK-si-NO-si-NY-HIL-i-PIL-i-fi-KAY-shuhn) noun
Estimating something as worthless.
[From Latin flocci, from floccus (tuft of wool) + nauci, from naucum
(a trifling thing) + nihili, from Latin nihil (nothing) + pili, from pilus
(a hair, trifle) + -fication (making).]
This word was coined by combining four Latin terms flocci, nauci, nihili,
pili, all meaning something of little or no value, which were listed in
the well-known "Eton Latin Grammar" of Eton College in the UK.
The Oxford English Dictionary shows the first use of the word by William
Shetstone in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his
flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money."
The word seems to be popular in the US government. It has been heard from
the mouths of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Senator Robert Byrd,
and Senator Jesse Helms among others. Maybe that tells us something about
the US Congress's interest in the floccinaucinihilipilification of taxpayers'
money.
floccinaucinihilipilification
(FLOK-si-NO-si-NY-HIL-i-PIL-i-fi-KAY-shuhn) noun
Estimating something as worthless.
[From Latin flocci, from floccus (tuft of wool) + nauci, from naucum
(a trifling thing) + nihili, from Latin nihil (nothing) + pili, from pilus
(a hair, trifle) + -fication (making).]
This word was coined by combining four Latin terms flocci, nauci, nihili,
pili, all meaning something of little or no value, which were listed in
the well-known "Eton Latin Grammar" of Eton College in the UK.
The Oxford English Dictionary shows the first use of the word by William
Shetstone in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his
flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money."
The word seems to be popular in the US government. It has been heard from
the mouths of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Senator Robert Byrd,
and Senator Jesse Helms among others. Maybe that tells us something about
the US Congress's interest in the floccinaucinihilipilification of taxpayers'
money.
Thats crazy! Almost as bad as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious . 
