FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION
From Wikipedia: is the act of describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation.
With 29 letters and 12 syllables, it is the longest non-technical word
in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 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." In recent years, the word has been used in many scholarly articles in philosophy. 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 ways of saying "don't care" and combined them:
- flocci facere (from floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool)
- nauci facere (from naucum, -i a trifle)
- nihili facere (from nihil, -i nothing; something valueless (lit. "not even a thread" from ni+hilum)) Example being: "nihilism"
- pili facere (from pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant)
Try using it in Scrabble!
For Eva
Bacon in the Fridge
Bunny in the Bucket
Snow in the Town
