floccinaucinihilipilification love

floccinaucinihilipilification

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A jocular coinage, apparently by pupils at Eton, combining a number of roughly synonymous Latin stems. The word was inspired by a line in the Eton Latin Grammar that listed verbs that govern a genitive noun: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur." Latin flocci, from floccus, a wisp or piece of wool + nauci, from naucum, a trifle + nihili, from the Latin pronoun, nihil ("nothing") + pili, from pilus, a hair, something insignificant (all therefore having the sense of "pettiness" or "nothing") + -fication.

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Examples

  • Unfortunately he did not live long enough to marvel with me at the word "floccinaucinihilipilification" (29 letters), which I discovered by chance in my unabridged dictionary last year.

    The Union - All Categories 2008

  • My grandmother once gave me a T-shirt that said “floccinaucinihilipilification” on it.

    flocculate | clusterflock 2009

  • Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...

    Human Brain Cloud 2007

  • Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...

    Human Brain Cloud 2007

  • Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...

    Human Brain Cloud 2007

  • My grandmother once gave me a T-shirt that said “floccinaucinihilipilification” on it.

    flocculate | clusterflock 2009

  • Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...

    Human Brain Cloud 2007

  • The floccinaucinihilipilification of no planes theory (that no planes crashed on 9/11) has proven to be not only -- how can I say it -- floccinaucinihilipilificatious, but wrong.

    OpEdNews - Diary: No Planes 2009

  • Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...

    Human Brain Cloud 2007

  • Y U purrtisapayt in floccinaucinihilipilification?

    Meow-mix - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

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